Corvus
by sky-fei
Summary: Jude Van Tassel was brought up in a life of chaos, and uncertainty. Two things she feared the most. The moment she met a young Jonathan Crane she was infatuated, but life led her away, and now there was only the criminally insane on Stryker Island to concern herself about. What happens when her dark past with the Scarecrow catches up with her?
1. Prequel Pt 1

Jude Van Tassel had been born into her future before she knew it. Though for the most part her choices were her own, it seems her future was a jumble of the decision of others.

"DO I HAVE A SINGLE GODDAMN CLEAN SHIRT?"

Jude pressed her hands over her temples, and slowly curled into a ball upon her bed. The angry footsteps trampled down the step as her mother made some weak retort back to monster. The monster was her father.

"Well then how come I can't find a single fucking one?!"

She closed her eyes, and pulled the comforter closer to her chin as they argued about shirts, and laundry. The dogs yipped, and barked until he let out another terrifying roar. Something slammed, and both dogs whimpered.

Jude quivered in her bed, and held her book closer to her chest. She could feel her breath become short and shallower, though she didn't know what was going on.

It feels like I'm drowning.

She bit her bottom lip, and closed her eyes tighter. As he yelled once more, she felt like screaming.

"Clean your own shirts, Rick."

Her soft whisper couldn't had made it out of the blankets, but it made her feel good. Silently she wished that for once she could stand up to him, but that would be impossible. He was too angry all the time, and too reckless. In her mind flashed the clear memory of him crashing the car just because he was in a bad mood.

As the yelling slowed she cringed as she heard her mothers forced laughter. The woman was a desperate idiot staying with that mad, Jude thought. Her mind skimmed over the countless times Kathy had promised her that they would leave if he exploded one more time. She had started doing that when Jude was five to calm her down, and now the girl was nearly eleven.

Her shaky hands opened the page of the old book that was in need of repair, and she immersed herself once more. Rick had sold the rest of her books when panicking about the families financial standing; all except The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. She had clung to it like it was her saving salvation, and in a way it was, and forever would be. It would also be her downfall.

Now the argument concerning fate could drag on forever, but it is undeniable that the introduction of Jonathan Crane into Jude Van Tassel's life drastically changed her entire future.

She was smitten from the moment she crashed into him on the sidewalk as the other kids tormented him, and threw rocks. All she could offer was a small smile behind large glasses and messy dark blonde hair. Her breath caught at how his ice blue eyes were, almost the same light shade as her own. It didn't matter how awkward or gangly he was or that his dark hair was always a mess.

"They make fun of you for your stutter, you know." He sat beside Jude on a bench at recess, making sure he was as far away as possible. She looked up from her book.

"I know."

He nodded, but didn't speak.

"They make fun of you too. It's because you're so skinny, and you always look like you're scared to death."

"I know."

She nodded, returning to her book.

"You don't talk like a normal ten-year-old."

"I don't spend a lot of time with other ten-year-old's."

"Who do you spend time with?"

"Myself, and my parents. Mostly myself."

"Are they married?"

She brushed over how insensitive he could be in her head, but watched as he relaxed into the bench. Her eyes swept back to the words in front of her, though she wasn't really reading them.

"No, but they live together."

Again he said nothing, but simply nodded.

The bell chimed loudly for the children to lineup and go inside, Jude tensed her arms, and shifted uncomfortably.

"Are you scared of that?"

"No."

"Liar."

She turned her back with a huff.

"Goodbye, Jonathan."

"Goodbye, Jude."

He said it just quietly enough that she could only barely hear as she tucked the book into her jacket pocket, and pulled the zipper shut. October was her favorite month, but spending too much time outside in the cold was not her favorite activity.

This went on for months. Jude would sit at her bench, and soon enough Jonathan would join her, and ask personal questions until time was up, and they had to go back inside. Some days he looked more like death than others, and some days he didn't come to school, and would come back looking ten times worse.

She understood perfectly well why, but there was no need to push. He hadn't questioned her, so why do the same to him?

Jude happily hummed as she floundered around the fields near the abandoned chapel on the outskirts of the town. A small hope in her sparked that maybe she would see Jonathan, but she knew that was too far off to be true. He did live nearby, but there was no reason he would out in the old chapel of all places.

The May wind swished up her hair around her eyes, and the tall grass as she fell onto the ground.

This was the only way to get away from her parents, she had discovered. They didn't mind as long as she yelled a gentle goodbye or left a note. It would only be her mother who would follow her on occasion, but her father simply cursed her as she left.

Setting Sleepy Hollow beside her, she pondered life without her father. It would be much more pleasant. Maybe her mother wouldn't be as mean, or crass. And maybe she could actually talk to people without being afraid that they were going to blow up just like he did. Her worst fear was to become either of her parents, so she decided that she was going to fall in love with Jonathan.

He was to timid to ever yell or be mean. He was nice to her no matter what, she thought.

A sudden shriek burst from within the walls of the church. Jude jumped to her feet with a start, keeping her eyes locked on the rotting wooden doors. The screech came again, only louder. It sounded less human this time. She could feel her hands shaking as she tried to slowly back away from the building. The dirt road seemed so far away now, and her legs felt like stone being pulled into the earth.

Five or ten screeches came at the same time, they sounded like crows. Along with another one from whatever other creature was being torn limb from limb inside.

Suddenly the feeling returned in her legs, and she was set free. Her feet ran faster than they ever could in gym class all the way down the dirt road, and straight back into her hellish home.

As she caught her warm breath, wheezing and coughing, she realized she had forgotten something.

Her book.

The book.

The only book that she still had left, the one that had kept her sane, and made sure she was alright throughout everything. The reason she had become friends with Jonathan Crane, because she thought it was fate that she happened the have the same last name as another character in the stories.

It was amazing how one little thing could make a ten-year-old's life come crashing down around her.

* * *

**So this didn't quite upload correctly the first time whoops. Anyhow, this little back story will be over with in a chapter or two I think, then I'll move on to the actual story. Sorry if anyone read this while it was messed up. Anyway I'm picking and choosing things from the comics and movies, so it won't really stick to either because I like both tbh. Also I changed part of the Sleepy Hollow story because I realized that**


	2. Prequel Pt 2

**Yeh, I changed the rating to M because of violence. (I don't really go into detail though just because I'm not into that). Also mild sexual situations, but eh. **

* * *

Jude sat in the small enclosure her and Jonathan spent time in together. She would steal away from the screaming nearly every day once they had decided on a spot. It was near her families cabin which resided in the woods between her house and his. About five years ago she had found him here, reading her book.

She refused to tell him it was her's, though she knew he had his speculations. He admitted to suffering his grandmother's torture, and though Jude offered to call services to help him soon after, he refused her help threatening to do the same for her. It was a vicious cycle for both.

Occasionally Jonathan would comfort Jude as she sputtered through another panic attack, or stuttered in front of the entire class. In return she would leave water, and bandages at the church, after realizing that those horrifying screams were him being attacked by the crows.

Jude shivered, crossing her arms, and shrinking into herself. Her hand shakily poked out from her sleeve to clutch around the pencil that tried to finish her homework. It had been too loud at home again. Her mother was crying over the fact that both of their dogs were dead now, and Rick wouldn't stop throwing dirty dishes in an attempt to scare her into silence. Though she silently hoped Jon would appear at any moment, she knew it was useless.

"He's in l-l-love with Sherri anyway now." She said through clattering teeth, though the October chill wasn't why her words were stuttering. "He wouldn't want to spend any time with m-m-m-me." As tears pricked at her eyes, she stuffed the finished math into her ratty bag, and flopped onto her back looking up at the red leaves. With the swirling tears in her eyes, they reminded her of blood.

* * *

"...I mean I guess I just don't understand why Mr. Duke has to give out so many of those stupid pamphlets. I'm pretty sure I know what..."

Jude looked up from her packed lunch of leftover pasta, picking out the cold chunks of beef. Her jaw clenched as she watched Jon's eyes stay locked on the girl.

"Jon, just tell me to stop talking if all you're going to do is stare at Sherri."

"I can multitask. Wait-I wasn't staring at Sherri!" He spun around to look at her for the first time that day. She eyed his gaunt face warily. He looked worse today than usual.

"Did you have a bad night?"

"Why do you care?" He scoffed, returning to his prior occupation of staring at the beautiful, strawberry blonde girl.

Jude looked into her lap. She couldn't understand why of all people Jonathan had an obsession with Sherri Squires. It didn't even matter to her that it was another girl, it just didn't make sense that it was Sherri Squires. The prettiest, most popular girl in the entire senior class, and smart too. If Sherri had just been those things Jude wouldn't hold a grunge against her, but the girl was evil. That certainly wasn't someone that Jude thought she could stand a chance against, but she thought that Jonathan could see through her kind facade, and realize how cruel she, and the rest of them were. They had been the ones to throw rocks at him, and call him Scarecrow when he was young for god's sake!

Sherri's pretty green eyes flicked over to Jonathan, and caught Jude's wandering pale blue one's instead. Her long, shiny hair bounced as she flicked it back over her shoulder, leaning against Bo Griggs, and returning to their lunches.

Bo Griggs was the most disgusting human she had come in contact with on Earth besides her own father, Jude thought.

Once he had purposely grazed his hand far too personally over her body, and she had broken two of his fingers, and sprained his wrist in a flurried panic. The principle had simply told her that she shouldn't start things, and she had In School Suspension for a week.

"I don't understand," she whispered inaudibly. She chewed her bottom lip as she ate until it began to bleed, watching Jon stare, and steal glances the entire time.

It felt like there was a rock in her stomach.

* * *

As they walked down the pavement from school side by side Jude silently fumed as Jonathan gushed over Sherri Squires. For the most part she droned out his nonsensical babbling. It was like dealing with her parents.

"...spoke to me, so I was thinking of asking her to that party."

"What the hell is wrong with you, Jonathan?"

Even he had to step back at how icy her tone was.

"Excuse me?"

He slacked a few paces behind her.

"You've been obsessed with Sherri Squires since this year started, and for no reason! You've hated her, and the rest of them since we-"

"Don't just lump her with the rest of them!"

"Well she is just like the rest of them, sorry to ruin your perfect view of your p-p-princess! She locked me in the gym bathrooms, and she's always trying to pull stupid stunts. Especially after I broke Bo's fingers. So even after-"

"You're such a child! You wouldn't understand why-"

"I am t-two years younger than you! I can understand emotions, and feelings perfectly fine. I can even understand insanity, but this is just plain stupidity. What are you thinking? D-d-do you think that she'll actually-"

Jude cut herself off, and took a step back. There were people staring. Most of the school was staring. They were the two most invisible people in this town, but now it seemed that their cloaks had suddenly vanished, and they were left out on a platter. She could hear the laughter, and the whispering. It clouded her mind as her heart sped up.

"You are jealous, and pathetic." He sneered down at her.

"Yeah, but at least I'm realistic. I know that you don't..." she didn't finish.

As she turned her back the hoard of people seemed to dissipate.

"I won't regret this!" He called up to her, clutching his messenger bag so tightly his pale knuckles went whiter than usual.

She didn't look back at him, keeping her eyes on the pavement. Her hand lazily came up to give him a thumbs up. She didn't have the energy to do anything more.

* * *

That night she didn't go straight home. Her parents had become accustomed to this, and didn't mind at all now. Either way they thought she was with that awkward, skinny boy that her father made fun of, and her mother whispered about his sexuality.

She wandered through the forest, up to the family cabin dragging her feet by the place where her and Jonathan had spent so much wasted time together. None of that mattered now, at least not to him.

"We've never argued like this," she sighed clutching an old picture of the two of them. It was in a square locket that she always hid in secret pockets sewn into her clothes. Neither of them looked happy in the photo, so it was more or less revealing about the truth. "Maybe been in disagreements as to certain aspects of human nature, and the possibility of aliens, but...but you've never been this stupid." She slumped onto the comfy bed in the small cabin. There was a kitchen, and a tiny fire place all in one open room.

It always smelled like stale burnt wood and rust no matter how many candles she lit or how many times she would clean the one room cabin, or the bath that was behind a curtain in the back near the fire. There were two windows; one by the old, barely working stove, and one at the foot of the bed. The wind made the entire building clatter, and shake, but that didn't keep Jude from pulling her blankets over her face and falling asleep.

* * *

She wasn't entirely sure what time it was when she woke up, but it was dark outside, and the wind seemed to have stopped completely. As soon as she stepped outside, it felt as though something were wrong. The feeling wasn't just coming from the dark trees around her. This time, her feet ran just as fast as they had when she had first heard Jonathan's screams, and the cawing crows. The day she had lost her special book.

Her short curly, wiry hair was getting caught in branches, and the old dingy over-sized brown sweater she always wore wasn't helping her from getting scrapped by invisible pricker bushes. A sharp pain coursed up from her ankle as her foot slipped on a mossy rock, but she ignored it for now. The only sound she could hear was her heartbeat even as she broke the treeline, and b-lined to her house.

The cold air made the insides of her lungs burn even though the autumn air smelled so nice. Tears were welling up in her eyes before she even saw the dim lights on in their one floor house. She tried to wipe them away with one hand, but only smeared water onto her glasses. As she got closer, and closer the feeling in her legs seemed to give out. Her chest felt like shards of glass were stuck in it, and her stomach felt like a buzzing rock.

As she slowed to the front door, she paused.

The television was on. It wasn't a channel either of her parents liked though, it was one of those music channels. The loud classical music that made it sound as if the volume was all the way up on the television. Her mind raked itself finding the name of the Chopin piece to be his Scherzo No. 2 Op. 31.

"How ironic?" Her voice shook, but she let out a sharp bark of laughter. A shaking hand went out to reach for the cold metal door handle. She could already smell something was off behind the thin walls, and screen of the door. The house always smelled like leftovers vanilla, not like rust and pennies.

The door quietly shut behind her.

"...A song about love," she soundlessly found herself in the kitchen, and without truly thinking, picked up a long sharp knife. "In a house that doesn't have any."

Wide-eyed, and slumped over she looked almost like a deranged animal of some kind.

A tear spilled over as she came into the living room where the music was playing. She only glanced at her mothers mangled form for a moment before throwing up in her mouth, and turning away. It looked like he had strangled her, and then snapped her neck. Her head was facing the wrong direction. The blood was coming from some unknown place of her midsection, and she was still holding a dull knife.

"You tried to kill yourself?" Jude spat. "What? So you could get away from this place? It never works like that, Mommy. It just doesn't work like that." Her voice was lower, and hoarser than usual.

Her feet dragged into the master bedroom, not caring anymore if he heard her.

She could just barely make out Rick's unbridled sobbing over the love song of the piano.

She found him, sitting in a chair facing the perfectly made bed, cradling a large bottle of rum in one hand, and whiskey in the other. He was muttering prayers to the Lord, and shaking uncontrollably. She suppressed a laugh, and walked until she was inches behind him, the knife touching his throat.

"I...bu-I loved her, Jude. You gotta know that-"

His body jerked as she jerked the knife into his skin once. Then again. And again. And fourteen more times. There was an awful popping and squelching noises each time, and the smell of blood and alcohol sickened her. Then it was over. He was gone. She was free.

Jude set the knife down beside the still-bleeding corpse on the floor, and turned on her heel to go to her room. She stripped herself of the ratty jeans, and sweater she had been wearing for a pair not splattered with drying blood. Her body was shaking, and everything ached, but she didn't know what else to do, so she went back outside, and walked.

* * *

She knew where she was going. It was the party that Jonathan had asked Sherri Squires to.

"A lot has happened today," her voice was light an airy, but with an edge, "Maybe the world's turned upside down, and Jonathan Crane is fucking Sherri Squires in a back room. I just killed my father, so nothing would surprise me now!" It felt like she was screaming, but her voice was in a low whisper. As she dragged herself down the avenue she heard other feet running, and ducked into the nearest alleyway on instinct.

"There's nothing to be scared of, Jude." She held her own hand, pretending she had another to soothe her. "You can do anything. You're perfect. Everything is just dandy. It's all going to go-"

"C'mon, Scarecrow! What kind of Scarecrow runs away like that?!"

The terrible horse laughter rose up in swells, as did the pretty, pixie-like laughter from another.

It was Bo Griggs and Sherri Squires.

Maybe things were back to normal, she thought.

As she stepped back into the street she looked up the avenue to her left just as a pumpkin smashed across Jonathan's back. Her eyes widened, and her jaw clenched. His back still wasn't completely healed from the last time his grandmother...

There was more awful laughter.

"You actually thought you had a chance, dumb-ass?!"

She couldn't see them, only Jonathan as he fell to his knees in defeat, though he didn't make a noise.

It may have looked as though his body was shaking with fear, but Jude could tell it was closer to rage.

Her feet moved toward him before her mind could think. When she was only a mere ten feet away, someone caught her arm. Bo threw her back so hard, she stumbled onto the sidewalk, and back into a brick building.

"You can't help him, bitch." He whispered lowly. "And you're not going to. Now go home, and cry to your-"

"You really think that's going to scare me? You're just a fuckass who's going to end up in a dead end life before he's-"

The brute's hand covered her mouth as her socked her in the gut so she couldn't make a sound. Salty water spilled over, but not from the pain of the punch, it was her delayed emotions catching up to her. Her eyes were shut firmly, but she felt a sharp kick in her back, and curled closer to herself.

When she finally opened her eyes they were gone, and so was Jonathan. She was alone again.

* * *

The next week was a blur for Jude. She gave her mother a proper burial in their back yard that night, and after hurriedly cutting the other body into pieces and limbs, discarded him around the woods for the animals to eat, always keeping check to make sure no one saw. Even their family was invisible, and no one would care, but she couldn't be too careful.

She crouched by Rick's half-eaten calf-the crows had taken to his body more than the coyotes or bears- and contemplated missing another week of school, but decided against it at the last second, and rushed back home to get rid of the everlasting stench of death, and make it in time for the bell.

The entire school was somber, in a fragile glass-like way when she entered. No one looked happy, and everyone was crying or at least looked like they hadn't slept in days. Even the teachers took on a somber mask. She didn't know what to make of it.

Soon enough, she caught Jonathan who was easily putting his books away in his locker for once.

"Why is-"

"Where have you-"

There started together.

She motioned for Jon to keep talking.

"Where have you been? It's been a week, you never miss this much, and you look as though you haven't slept at all either." He slid his jacket off his bony shoulders, and into the locker, and shut it loudly. The simple noise seemed to make the entire school jump in terror. He chuckled lowly.

"Yeah, maybe later. Now tell me why everyone is so quiet."

"You haven't seen it on the news?"

"No, just tell me."

"Sherri Squires and Bo Griggs got in a terrible accident. She died, and he's permanently paralyzed." A small grin perked the sides of his usually straight lips.

Jude bit her lip, to hold back a small smile of her own. It was wrong, she couldn't be happy because of this. She let the smile transform itself into a grimace.

"You seem happy."

"I don't see how I couldn't be."

"You're never happy."

"Well, I don't think..."

"Did you have something to do with it?"

"I would ne-"

"It's alright if you do, I mean I-"

The bell chimed, and he was out of her sight before she could get another word out. Smirking, she pulled her bag higher on her shoulder, and dragged herself to class.

* * *

Jude nearly screamed when someone grabbed her arm on the way to her study hall in the library.

"Jonathan, what are you doing?!"

He rarely would humor anyone touching him, let alone touching someone else.

Even so his spindly fingers kept their grip on her wrist.

"I need to tell you something, and you need to tell me something."

He dragged her into the room devoid of people, but full of books. Even the librarian wasn't in there, he was probably taking his second lunch break. He pulled her past the aisles of books, and shelves of encyclopedias to the very back where there were three bean bag chairs that were so old, and lumpy no one ever bothered to sit in them any more.

He pushed her down onto the gray lump of a chair with more strength than she thought he had, and sat beside her.

"Yes, I am the reason for the accident, but I didn't predict that this would be the outcome."

Slowly his body relaxed as he saw no change, or look of disgust sprawl across her face. He jumped when she let out a small cackling laugh, that sounded like bird. She rested into the beanbag again as he did, and nearly had her head leaning on his shoulder.

"I killed Rick. That night of the party. It must've been before those jackasses threw a pumpkin at you, or sometime then. I can't really remember. I just got done burying some of his bones."

Jonathan laughed quietly, and strained.

"Wait, you saw them do that?" He said through gasps of air.

"Yeah," she smirked, "I was going to help, but Bo punched me, and when I got up you were gone. How's your back?"

"Better now, I suppose."

She nodded plainly.

"I need to leave."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know yet. I just know that I need to go before anyone finds anything out."

"What about your parents workplaces? Won't they be looking for them?"

"My mom got fired a couple weeks ago I forgot to tell you, but if anyone comes for Rick I guess I could just say that he left."

"You know, you should have left your mothers body in place, gotten rid of Rick's, and then said he had killed her, and left."

"I thought about that, but I think it's best to stay as far away from the police as possible."

"You really think the police around here could or would do anything? We're nobodies, and so are our families. They would take anything to get you to quiet down."

"Whatever," she shifted away from him, "I'm not going into foster care. Besides it's too late now. I just want to leave."

"How would you finish school?"

"I don't know, maybe I could try to get in with...I really don't know."

The lamps buzzed above them, and the overly clean smell of the library invaded their noses. Jude shivered though she wasn't cold, she could feel Jonathan's eyes resting on her.

"Go to your family cabin. Live there until the end of the year. It's easy enough to trick those home schooling companies into giving you materials, and a GED. Finish by the end of the year, and go to college."

She scoffed.

"It can't be that simple."

Curling into herself, she faced away from him. Staring at the binding of a Bible. Inwardly, she cringed, the last thing she wanted to see was that book. A cool hand wrapped around her shoulder, forcing her to face him.

"Yes, it can." He said sternly.

She believed him.

* * *

Surprisingly, it was that simple. The two had easily conned a homeschooling agency into mailing them enough for Jude to finish high school with. She moved her personal items to the cabin little by little, having Jonathan bring her food, and other toiletries.

She rolled over in the warm bed reading over a paragraph of The Clergyman's Daughter for a third time, but not bothering to focus again. It had been nearly a week since she had seen Jonathan. Nearly a week of zero human interaction, and she felt like she was going to explode. She finished all her work early in the morning and late at night.

Often times her mind was not occupied with the murder of her father, it was not something that altogether bothered her. His death was already justified in her mind. His bones had been scavenged by the crows, and the rest buried deep in their basement by the coal furnace.

Every now and then she worried that the rustle outside might be the police that had finally come to get her. She had already decided that she wouldn't deny them, she might even act proud of what she had done.

Fully giving up on the book for the time being, she rolled herself out of bed, and began to run the bathwater to the claw foot tub. As the tub filled she watched the snow slowly falling onto the trees, and already white ground.

It was nearly halfway through March, and the snow was still sticking to the ground with a silent fury. Sometimes she worried that maybe Jonathan had died, though it was a silly thought. His grandmother was cruel, and leaving a person to the wrath of crows, and the cold was enough to kill them. To her it was impressive that he was a babbling mess.

* * *

**I realized that this was getting a little long for what I wanted the chapters to be, so there'll be one more backstory chapter after this just to finish it off, and then we'll get to the story dear lord.**


	3. Prequel Pt 3

**This chapter contains mildly sexual content. I put the rating up to M basically because of this just to make sure.**

* * *

Jonathan silently watched as Jude's back arched, and her body gave off a small tremor. He stood outside, shivering in the cold March snow. His body ached to move, but he had stopped, and watched her not really realizing what she had been doing until then. With shaking legs, and numb fingers he rushed to the door, and stood composing himself for a minute.

His hand raised to knock, but it shook in the icy wind, and grabbed for the door handle instead. Adjusting the crooked, and now fogging glasses upon his face he stormed in, not bothering to look at Jude.

"Jonathan!" She yelped, and hid herself under the closest blanket.

"Afternoon." He said solemnly.

"You haven't been here...I wasn't expecting you to-"

She paused as he turned to look at her. He set the bag down in front of the small fireplace, and peeled off his coat-never taking his eyes off of her.

Jude felt like her throat was closing. He usually knocked. Though she was warmer than him, her hands shook, clutching the thick quilt closer to her body. She counted the seconds as he took steps closer to her.

"She's gone."

Jude nodded, understanding him. He had talked about this before, many times; killing his grandmother had been on his mind for a long time, and once he figured out the chemical combination to what she had been forcing him to be smothered in it was only a matter of time.

"You won't get caught?"

"She was old. Besides, playing around with dangerous things can get people hurt." He gently sat on the bed, forcing the quilt to fall lower on Jude's body. "Accidents happen all the time."

She maintained his eye contact. It was simple to see he was trying to intimidate her again. He had done this many times before, tried to make her scared of him in any way possible. Sometimes she felt like an experiment, but that didn't lessen her still meaningless feelings towards him.

"Why didn't you knock?"

"I had too many things in my hands, and I wanted to tell you my news."

"I don't believe you." She let the quilt drop a little more. This was the only way to win the game, she told herself. The heat rose up in his cheeks. "I know the cold doesn't do too much, but turn you pink, but I think your face was a little redder when you came in than usual."

"It wasn't this cold the last time I was here." He said evenly, and turned away from her in an act of defiance. She hadn't quite won yet though.

"You could be the best liar in the world, and you aren't even trying." She whispered into his neck. Letting the quilt drop to her waist, she lightly pressed her chest to his back. "You've lost, you can't surprise me, Jonathan. I've known you for too long."

"You won't do it."

She watched the corner of his mouth lift in a smirk.

Her brow furrowed, and she pursed her lips. He couldn't win again.

She waited for a moment, barely breathing, until he moved his head with that stupid smirk still plastered there ready to make her admit her defeat.

Her hands shot out to grab the collar of his soft, black sweater. He kept his stare hard, and cold on her as she was millimeters away from him.

"Liar."

One of his thin hands reached up to wrap around her shoulder, but she caught his wrist, feeling his pulse shoot up along with hers.

"As clever as you might be you can't win your way out of-"

Jude was stopped as Jonathan's mouth crashed onto hers. His still freezing hands dug into her bare waist, and he pinned her to the bed. Goosebumps raised on her body, but she was suppressing a laugh as he pulled away.

"I can't believe out of all things you would fall for reverse psychology. It's barely a proven method..."

He raised an eyebrow at her, still smirking.

"I hate you."

His face nestled into her neck, she bristled as she felt his teeth scrape against her skin. She was shaking, they had never done anything like this before. Her mind raced; he didn't necessarily have feelings for her, and she wasn't sure what her feelings for him were.

"Your body seems to think otherwise."

His cold hands trailed up and down her waist.

"Why are you doing this?"

It was only a question to fill the growing silence as one of his hands trailed down her hip to her thigh. She was the only person he could dominate.

"We're bored, and you like this."

"You don't do things for other people." She breathed as he moved her wrists above her head with one hand. He didn't speak as his hand traced along the inside of her thigh. All at once he stopped, and she let out the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

"The mind's control over the body is something to marvel at isn't it?" Sitting on the edge of the bed again he held up her hand. "You're still shaking."

She pulled her hand away, and pulled the blanket up again.

"Just let me go put on clothes, dumbass." Jude rasped out.

He made a small noise, nodded, and lifted himself to walk over to the other side of room, and began methodically putting groceries in the wooden cabinets. Jude pulled herself off of the bed, and rummaged through the trunk at the end of her bed for jeans and a sweater. She grimaced realizing that she was still shaky, and he was completely fine.

Stretching so her spine popped, Jude dragged herself to the counter where Jonathan was sitting, and scrawling something in handwriting only he could read. As she glanced over his shoulder, less than interested, he folded the paper, and shoved it into his pocket.

"I'm going to Gotham."

"You were accepted to Gotham University?" She asked blandly, pulling a wooden stool from under the counter, and sitting. She rested her chin in her hands, and stared outside through the window at the falling snow.

"Of course."

"It's for the better."

"What is?"

"I'm going to Metropolis and you're going to Gotham. We won't have to see each other ever again. Besides, that leaves less of a chance of you reporting me for murder."

He didn't respond for a long time, but tapped his fingers quietly on the hard wood. He didn't appear affected by the facts, and she doubted that he was. As life had changed completely for Jude late the year before, she knew that nothing would be the same. Whenever she thought about it, she despised the melodramatic nature, and air of it all, but it didn't change a single thing.

"Obviously, though I still don't understand why you chose to go to Metropolis, their departments are less than-"

"I knew that you were going to Gotham. Metropolis is further away from here than Gotham is anyhow."

"It's because I..."

"What happens if someone finds out about the things that you've done?! Or the things that I've done? If we go together that would look way to weird to some-"

"Can you even say it out loud?"

"What? Say wha-"

"What we did. You can't even say it." He said accusingly. There was so much venom in his tone all of sudden, and his eyes had gone into that stale icy way that they did only when he was on the verge of fury. Jude nearly rolled her eyes at his flustered state.

"I killed my father. I murdered him. I stabbed him. More than fifteen times. You want to know what you did? You scared a couple of imbeciles; killed one and left the other one in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Then you killed the worst person in your life with the thing she'd been using to hurt you for years. Are you happy?" She scoffed, pushing herself away from the counter, and moving to the old cooler filled with ice and snow from outside, and grabbed the freezing metal canister of water from it.

"Never."

* * *

There weren't many other memorable conversations, at least not to Jude years later. As soon as graduation was over with Jonathan moved away to Gotham, and she rented a shabby apartment outside of Metropolis waiting for move-in day months later. College went by without much fault, not many people seemed to notice that she was a bit young, and the professors never mentioned it.

She blended in as she had in high school, and how she assumed she would the rest of her life. Jonathan never made any attempts to contact her, and she him. On occasion she kept tabs on his life. It was a simple task after his first stunt with what the media stated he called Fear Gas. When the Gotham reports stated he called himself Scarecrow, she almost laughed.

* * *

**Short chapter just to end the backstory stuff! We'll get to the actual story now! Anyway Jonathan doesn't actually have any feelings towards Jude (while they're teens) and she doesn't really either, but at this point she feels as though he's the only one who can understand her so she should like him, and vice versa. Also at this point this is the only person Jonathan can mess with so he does.**


	4. Serenade

**This is more of filler, get the plot to start kind of chapter that still needs a lot of brushing up, so skim over it if you like**

* * *

Jude Van Tassel was sitting in her dark apartment, trying not to pay attention to the news. The newscaster had finally stopped glorifying Superman for two minutes to talk about the Batman in Gotham City. Apparently some villain had rose out of the dust again, and there was chaos as usual. When the robotic man on the television managed to get to Jonathan, she chuckled.

Nothing about his current life surprised her. When he was interviewed as Scarecrow he seemed to have completely lost it, but other than that he was largely the same. Colder, and less weak than he had been when they were young, but so was she. Given the motivation she thought it could be possible that she could end up like him, but circumstances were different.

Living in Metropolis, and working at Stryker's Island was much different than what she imagined Gotham, and Arkham Asylum to be. Though she was slightly sympathetic with his situation and ideals, she couldn't allow herself to lose it as he had.

She saw what happened to the prisoners on Stryker's, and she didn't want to be like that. Her thoughts were constantly twisted, and criminal.

"I'm too scared to do anything." She whispered the end of the though to herself aloud.

Jonathan had been right about fear controlling life.

"But what would we do without it?" Jude sighed, and nimbly walked to the dimly lit kitchen. She placed the still warm bowl of what had held oatmeal into the sink.

Pulling on the thick, woolly trench coat she check the calender hanging on the fridge for the third time.

Lunch with Logan and Terra.

Her face made a small grimace, as she stared at the writing grabbing her bag from the counter. They were as close to friends as what Jude had made when she had been in college. However, she had also accidentally killed Terra's girlfriend, so meetings like these always left a bitter taste in her mouth. It hadn't entirely been her fault. She could barely remember the girl's name- Ginny, or Winny, or something like that- but she remembered how the woman had screamed, and yelled at Terra. It was abuse. Jude couldn't stand it to see it. Thankfully she had been working with some chemists at the time, and had access to hydrofluoric acid.

She didn't remember much about the night, only that Terra didn't find out, and that she had been wearing all black, and blood was less noticeable than her first time.

Letting go of the grimace, and the pointless memory she stepped out the door with a swish.

* * *

The day seemed to drag on longer than most, yet there was a still a feeling in the pit of her stomach as if something bad was going to happen. She zoned in, and out of her least important patient's general complaints about the food, and staff. None of them seemed to matter anyway. Being a criminal psychologist was not what she had planned for in life.

Her Cognitive Neuroscience degree, and bio-chem studying had been to develop drugs for those with insomnia, schizophrenia, and any other disorder she might be able to help. She didn't plan on helping everyone that Superman put behind bars say that they were insane. It was boring, unforgiving work that didn't get her anywhere except back to her dirty apartment building on the outskirts of the city.

"Dr. Van Tassel! Miss, please! Are you leaving already? I needed you to-"

"Only refer to me as Doctor, Eric." She said sternly, giving the lanky man a stern glare. He was still an intern, hoping to become a psychologist for the criminals, and transfer to Arkham one day. Though she hadn't grown much since she was fifteen, and had stayed at a measly 5'2", she learned to carry herself in a way that made even the burliest 7' criminals fear her. They said it was the way her eyes darkened, but she could never tell. "If you're going to work at Arkham one day you should learn to follow a very strict code of conduct and respect."

"I heard at Arkham the psychologists bend to every wish of the Rogues. I don't want to be like that. I want to change that!" He said resolutely, seemingly forgetting what he was initially tracking her down for, though now he held a steady pace with her.

"I had frie...I've made the acquaintanceship of many of the psychologists working there, and I believe they are well within their right. I know you have dreams, Eric, but in the real world arguing with a woman or man who had killed, robbed, or tortured from hundreds over whether they get a few more hours free time is really the least of your concerns. Generally these tactics are used with something in turn, and people such as the Rogues are easily manipulated if you think it through well enough."

He paused for a long while, staring hard at the blue concrete floor.

"I suppose you're right..."

"What did you need, Eric?" She bit the inside of her lip. "I don't mean to sound rude, but I was planning on leaving a bit early. I was supposed to have dinner with a couple old friends, and they'll be upset if I skip again."

"Oh, right!" He fumbled through his clipboard, and folders loaded with papers until he found one. "I was wondering if you would be so kind as to fill out a letter of recommendation for me to go to an internship in Gotham. I hate to leave, but..."

"The opportunity is greater there? I understand entirely. Better for you to be closer to where you want to end up." Taking the paper with gentle hands, she gave out a small sigh. "Who is head of psychology at Gotham U now?"

"Well I'm not entirely sure, I know the last to be was Dr...uh, what's his name? I think it was Cree-"

"Crane. Jonathan Crane."

"Oh, yeah, but he's one of those Rogues now isn't he?"

"The Scarecrow is, yes. I believe Jonathan Crane is someone a bit different."

"What do you mean by that? You seem to know him. Did you go to college together or is it-?"

"I believe if you are to have in internship in Gotham you should do your thorough research on all of the Rogues. I'll mail this to the company tonight," she said glancing over the instructions on the paper.

"Thank you, Dr. Van Tassel, you don't know how much this means to me!" He gasped in shallowly. "Have you ever been to Gotham? I've only gone a couple times, but it's great. You must have gone to Gotham once or twice, there's probably tons on things you get invited to-"

"I've never had the displeasure of stepping into that city, and I don't plan on it."

"Well, why not?"

She pursed her lips, shutting the lights out in her office, and grabbing her keys.

"It's never interested me."

"You sound bitter."

"I probably am."

"You know you're not that much older than me, Dr. Van Tassel. I'm twenty, that's only like eight or nine years. I know you don't have many friends here. You can tell me-"

"Eric, please I need to get home. My reasons for not wanting to go to that disgusting city are my own."

"I just- of course. You are correct, I was out of line."

* * *

The pit in Jude stomach seemed to grow until it was a gaping abyss. Each forced bite of the stale food seemed to drop until it somehow tried to come back up. It felt like buzzing flies were clinging to inside of her.

"Are you alright, Jude? You look sick."

She jumped as Logan placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Jude?" He asked again. "If you want to go you can."

"Yeah, we know you work super long hours, and around all those crazies." Terra piped in.

"Well at least it's not Arkham, and around all those Rogues. Did you hear there was another escape?"

"No, oh my god, when are they going to get better security on that place? You would think that the Batman would spend more of his time trying to get the prisoners to stay in there instead of just slamming 'em back in every single-"

"Yeah, you know what? I think I am going to go. I didn't sleep well last night."

"Oh," they both cooed dejectedly.

"Well, we hope you feel better soon. Call me when you do, alright?"

She was already grabbing her purse, and standing.

"Yes, of course." The bland lie made the two sitting at the table cringe.

* * *

George watched as the target stiffly lifted herself out of the taxi, and headed toward the apartment. He smacked his partner over the head, he had forgotten the name of the other man in the time it had taken to get from the lab to this hell hole. Another pointless job for another rich old woman out of her mind. This one was obsessed with birds, and the woman he was currently stalking down.

His partner stumbled to his feet as he grabbed the needle, and steadily walked toward her. The partner seemed to struggled to keep the steady pace, holding a needle of his own. She was smaller, and much less intimidating than the old woman had made her sound.

Walking faster he clamped a clothed hand over her mouth, and shoved the needle into her neck. She struggled for a moment, it was animal-like just like most, but she seemed stronger for some reason. Perhaps he had underestimated her.

Just as George motioned for the other man to assist him, the body went slack in his arms, and he let out a gruff sigh of relief.

"So we just bring her back to the lab, and then we're done?" The other man asked as they took off in the van.

George gave another gruff nod at the smaller man sitting behind him. He ignored the greasy, blond hair, and scrawny arms. It was better to give him the benefit of the doubt, though it was easy to see he wouldn't last much longer in this line of work.

* * *

The only thing that Jude could think when she finally woke was how cold it was, and how much her back hurt. Then all she could think of was the excruciating pain. Finally her eyes blinked open. As she reached to rub the sleep from her eyes, she felt another pain in her wrists. They were strapped to a table.

Quickly her eyes and mind adjusted. The urge to scream, and pull at the metal bindings was strong, but couldn't. Besides there was something covering her mouth. Inside her cheeks her tongue felt like hard rubber.

"You're awake then, my birdy?" A fragile voice cooed.

Her eyes went wide as a woman appeared over her. Her eyes widened at the sight of her with her long, frizzy gray hair, and imperfect skin. Her eyes were deep brown, and hollow. She was grinning, and looked happier than Jude had ever seen another human being.

"I'm going to take this-" she tapped the contraption on Jude's mouth, making her flinch, and try to move her head away "-off of your sweet, little mouth. Shame I couldn't get a beak on you. You won't make a peep though. Promise me you won't?"

Jude couldn't move her head or mouth to answer either way. The woman tapped a few buttons on the side of the metal bed, and the clamp around her mouth was released. Her mind was buzzing. It was like an increase of adrenaline, but unlike she had felt before. It felt feral, like a scared animal. She felt petrified, but also as if she could move at the speed of light if she wanted to.

She realized her muscles felt heavy.

"What did you do to me?" She was surprised at how bored her tone sounded.

"Ah, so you speak, little birdy." The woman cooed again. "I've simply changed you, but it's for the better."

"Why me?"

Her hands felt free, and there was a snap as the metal clamps released her hands. Suddenly they were forced back onto the table, and she was on her bare stomach now. Her chin smacked against the table as a hole opened for her head to rest in.

There was a sudden pinching at her back. It was were the pain was coming from. A straight line from her shoulder blades down to the bottom of her waste felt bruised. The pinching got worse, and worse until she felt warm liquid spraying onto her back. Her body buckled in pain, but no noise came from her mouth.

"Why me?" She asked again.

The liquid kept seeping.

"I see my little birdy is doing well. I didn't expect these unfortunate side effects, but what can you do. The only way to make you perfect, I had to add a little bird. I chose you because you seemed so close to perfection anyhow. I read about you in papers all the time, and once I finally figured out everything it was just marvelous!"

"What do you mean everything?" Jude asked through clenched teeth. Tears were flowing down her face, but she still couldn't scream. The pain continued.

"You went to school with the famed Dr. Crane. I heard you two were pretty close once I did some digging. Also some mysterious deaths, but no one seemed to mind. Then you just seemed to disappear for a while. They all though you had run away, you know?"

"I recognized what was happening in the world at the time, yes."

"I heard some people, former classmates who were hunters, they saw Dr. Crane up in the woods sometimes carrying bags, and such." A strong West Virginian accent seemed to come out of nowhere the more she prattled on about Jude's life. "Do you know the scientific name for a crow?" The pinching stopped, but the pain continued. The muscle relaxants she had been forced had dulled the pain for now, but what could she do after?

The pinching slowly began, and then stopped on the other side.

"Let's see how you do with this."

She tensed as a needle was stuck in her side, and struggled on the table. The slick substance was dripping down her waist, and onto her stomach. The pinching began once again, but it hurt more this time. Then she tore at the thing on Jude's back, and threw it to another side of the room.

The reaction was late, and stuttered, but it came. The worst pain she had ever felt engulfed Jude until she could only see white. She heard things snapping.

Dr. Mary Orlov watched as her experiment rose from the bed, blood still dripping down her back where she had spliced off the beautiful black wings. They were useless attachments anyhow, and could not be used for actual flight. She watched the coldness she had seen only once before seep into her experiments eyes as Jude turned to face her, sitting up on the table.

"You're even more beautiful now than ever, my little-"

The woman before her moved quickly to run out of the small, dim operating room. The room was a mess, and the drugs had not completely worn off yet. The girl before her stumbled around, knocking over papers, and stacks, books, and barrels of this and that. Orlov watched her experiment carefully failing to realize she had created something much stronger than expected.

As she sat dumbly a vat of chemicals was suddenly thrust at her, and exploded at the glass around it shattered. She could only scream, and scream until the pain faded along with her consciousness.

* * *

Jude's vision blurred in and out of perfect, and disoriented. The woman she had seen a moment ago was screaming now she thought. She couldn't tell. Suddenly she heard ripping, and tearing. Something warm gushed onto her face, and down her cheek.

When she opened her eyes again she was lying, still naked in a dark, cold hallway. There was a dark door which she could barely recall having a blurry memory of. Hand-prints, and smeared blood coated the metal handle. The dark, drying red stood out against the faded blue paint. Something still smelled metallic, and coppery like blood.

As she sat up, she remembered the awful a pain in her back. Carefully she rose to her feet. Her arms wrapped protectively around her waist as she took labored steps to the nearest door. It felt like she had a fever the way her head was pounding, and how the world still seemed like it was spinning. She let the weight of her slumping body open the door to a brightly lit room piled high with books, needles, and clothes in bags with labels.

"I wasn't the first?" Her voice didn't sound right, but she could barely hear herself think. Falling to her knees in front of the first bag labeled 'CHRISTIAN DOLAN'. It didn't matter, she didn't have time to rummage through the nearly hundred bags to find her own.

Inside was well-kept, light blue dress shirt, khaki pants, and a belt. Shaking hands stained with drying blood unbuttoned the collar of the shirt.

* * *

Jude arrived in her apartment shortly after the sun rose. She couldn't remember taking a car, or really how she got back, but suddenly she was home. Her eyes wandered to her wrinkled clothes. There was still a little blood under her fingernails. Shaking, she opened the door to her apartment, and stumbled inside. Everything was still so dim, and out of focus, but she had to keep going.

Her legs carried to the bathroom where she slipped of an unfortunate man's clothing, and stepped into a hot shower that stung her back, and made her aching muscles cry out.

"I need to leave." The idea that hadn't stopped passing her mind finally made its way to her lips. "I need to leave Metropolis."

Where will you go? There's no where. No home, no family, no friends.

"Gotham." She answered herself. "That's where all the broken people go right?"

You don't know that you're broken, you lived. You must be special.

"There's nothing special about anything."

It was difficult to see her own back, but the two thick lines tracing down her were difficult to not notice even on one's own self.

* * *

It took nearly a week by car, and train to go across the country to Gotham. In hind sight she thought it may have been simpler to get a plane, but that would've caused too many problems, and too many eyes. It was nerve-wracking enough to just walk out of her apartment.

* * *

**Thanks, I know this is a little late than usual, but I've been away from home, and very busy with a lot of tests and midterms coming up so this next one might take a while. We'll actually be in Gotham for the next one though so that's exciting, and Jonathan will come back in the next one soo whoo! Also I've been watching Misfits lately, and haven't gotten much done.**

**To the Guest who reviewed: Yeah, she'll have something like that later. You'll see that the experiments did more of an emotional/mental toll than a physical one. She's not going to have super powers or anything just to clear that up. Also, I didn't have anyone famous in mind if that's what you're asking? It's awesome that you came up with your own person though to be honest, I just sort of based her off of this idea that I've had of this girl with dark blonde hair, and light blue eyes, but that's pretty much it. **

**Also thank you everyone else who reviewed, it means a lot!**


	5. Experiment

The chaos that the papers made Gotham out to be didn't seem real. Well, at least for the first hour or so that Jude wandered the city. All she had encountered so far were sad-looking, and broken people on the sides of the street begging for money. All of her bags had been left at a cheap room on the outskirts of the city she had rented for the night. She wasn't really sure what she was looking for. Deep down she figured she was angry with Jonathan for making her this way, or that was how she saw it.

When she had ran away from that lab it felt like something was different. She didn't have the same type of bone-crushing motivation or jittery-ness she had felt since was young. It was the same feeling that had had when killing her father, or Terra's ex. There was nothing. It was just something that had be done, it was almost boring.

She felt like she had no purpose in life, but at the same time she could rule the world. It felt wonderful, but also made her slip into genuine indifference.

While wallowing in her own empty confusion, someone grabbed her arm. Not having the energy or heart to fight back, she simply turned to look behind her.

"What do you want?" She spat out to the man in the green suit. Glancing at the cane in his other hand, almost comical she realized who he was. "Why is everyone so goddamn interested in me this week? Jesus fuck, can I just get one fucking day o-"

Something clamped over her mouth, and she was forced into silence.

"Why couldn't that twig just do this himself?" The Riddler let out a long, unhappy groan forcing her hands to be tied together with zipties, and picking up her ankles to do the same.

She pursed her lips, watching him.

"Mom and Dad have four daughters. Each daughter has one brother, how many brothers?"

"One," she answered fluidly as he forced her into the silent car that had crept upon her as she had walked up the abandoned street. Had it been abandoned before he had arrived? She couldn't remember now. "I thought you were supposed to be hard to understand."

"Only for the people I find interesting." He answered flippantly, shutting the door to the drivers side. "I'm not the one who finds you interesting. He might not either come to think of it, but I need you as a type of distraction. Might get in the way if he doesn't have something to occupy all his spare time with, y'know?"

"Oh."

"You know you're awfully calm for someone who was just kidnapped by a Gotham rogue."

"I've had a rough week."

He scoffed, and sped up the car.

Jude couldn't believe what was happening. She knew she should be panicking, but there was something to boring and predicted about the scene. It didn't matter where he was bringing her, or if her hurt her, or if she died in the next half hour.

"You're taking me to Jonathan then?" It was more of an obvious statement than a question really.

"Nah, to Scarecrow. He said something about some little girl who had just gotten herself in a lot of trouble with a bird lady near Metropolis; seemed absolutely giddy about the entire affair. I have some plans that he'll butt his skinny, little head into if he doesn't have a distraction. You're good enough of a psychological experiment, not to mean any disrespect of course." He said it plainly, and without meaning, but she wasn't offended either way.

"Does he know it's me?"

"Who are you? Did you know Crane?"

"Yes, for a long time. Or rather a long time ago."

The car skidded, and swerved. She thought it was amazing she didn't have a concussion yet with how many times her body had slammed into the door.

"Got any interesting stories-"

"What makes me so special? Why would I interest him now?"

"I'm interested in how you know Scarecrow now, but you'll find out about yourself soon enough." She didn't answered back the empty question. If he was so good at riddles he could figure it out himself. "Were you childhood lovers? Have some messy fumbling as teens? He tries to be secretive, but I don't think he's very good at it."

"So I'm going to be an experiment for him, yeah? I've already done that- I think I'll pass."

She could almost feel his eyes roll behind the purple mask, and something was pressed against her face. In a few moments everything got soft, and fuzzy, and everything went dark.

Jonathan Crane slammed the door to what the rest of the world thought was an abandoned building on the very edges of Gotham. The resounding click in the empty downstairs would have made him grin if he had the energy. An escape from Arkham never went without a little trouble, though it seemed as if the guards were well used to it by now. They barely tried to keep them from running out. Everyone was so reliant on the Batman that they had given up trying to protect the city. It made their jobs less dangerous, and they still got a paycheck for moping about at the end of the week.

He walked carelessly through the dark open, glancing up at the loft lining the perimeter. It was lit. There was something wrong. A moment of confusion ran through him, perhaps the Batman had found him. Though if that had been the case he would already be on the ground with two or more broken ribs.

No, it had to be someone else.

A sigh that nearly turned into a groan filled the empty air as he spun around on his heel. He tugged at his unruly hair, and walked back to the door. There was a note with a big, cartoonish question mark on the front.

Clenching his jaw, he snatched it from where it hung.

I've left you present, seemingly from your past. Though I do hope it brings along a lovely future.

"A present from my...?" He stared up into the dim, glowing light of the loft, and crumpled the paper in his bony hand. As he walked his steps echoed loudly on the concrete floor. His feet carried him so quickly up the metal staircase that it rattled.

The door swung open with an easy flourish, and he stomped into the pale light.

It was amazing all the noise hadn't woken her. The crumpled paper slipped from his hands. It took him a moment to recognize her. She looked different.

If possible she was paler, and her once wavy dark blonde hair was strikingly black and straight. She was wearing dirty tennis shoes, tight jeans, and a dark green blouse. He watched her chest rise, and fall evenly on the spare bed. How the Riddler had found her, he wasn't certain, but it didn't matter now. He had to test the possibilities of the experiment that she was to his own level. Noticing, and reaching for the other note beside her he saw that her arms, and ankles were still tied tightly.

"You didn't even try to fight back, did you? How pathetic..." He scoffed, and reached for a pair of scissors on the desk beside the bed. As her wrists were freed she began to squirm, and he watched as she woke. Her eyes opened a fraction of an inch. He could feel his heartbeat increase with excitement as she looked up at him, the terror that would spread across her face...

"Leave me alone for a while, yeah? It's been a long day."

He was left with his mouth slightly open as she rolled onto her side away from him.

"You know who I am then?"

"Nygma explained it on the way. He didn't know we knew each other though." She grumbled out.

"What did you tell him?"

The only thing he noted was how different her voice sounded.

"He said you were talkin' 'bout me," she mumbled through tired, sloppy words, "or rather how you knew about what that woman had done to me, and I asked if you knew it me, and he assumed you knew me before, or something like that. I'm not sure. Go away, I've had a rough week."

"Jude Van Tassel." He spoke deeply, and slowly.

She didn't speak back for a while. Eventually she slowly rose her body away from the warm bed, and stretched to pop her bones. Finally she turned to face him.

"Jonathan Crane."

He raised an expectant eyebrow.

"How do you feel?" He kept a rigid posture, still standing in front of her.

It was just like when they were kids, she thought. He always had to be the one who one, the one on top. She used to let him win because she knew he couldn't over anyone else. Not now though, he had won so many times since they had last seen one another she couldn't just back down now. She even rose to her own feet, still feeling a little woozy, but not showing it. Though she was still shorter than him, even more so now that he had grown a bit since they were younger, and had filled out only a bit. He still glowered down at her from over his glasses, but there was something different now.

"What makes me so interesting now then, huh? What did that woman do to me? Everyone seems to know, but me."

"You didn't answer my question."

She noticed the definite edge to his voice that hadn't been there twelve years ago.

"I don't care to. My question is more important."

"That's a matter of op-"

"Answer me."

He watched her eyes carefully. They had been lighter blue than his at one point, and were now a deep black. The whites of her eyes were muddled, and it seemed her irises extended a little out of where they should. Apparently there had been physical transformation with the experiment as well.

"Are you scared of me?"

"I've never been afraid of you, Jonathan."

He took a lingering step closer to her, noticing how open, and relaxed her posture was. Her breathing hadn't quickened, she hadn't even blinked.

"But you know what I am now. You must know what I can do."

"You've always been this way. Answer my question."

He dug a hand into her shoulder pulling her closer. Her eyes were locked with his in a silent battle. Meanwhile his other hand reached into his back pocket to pulled out a small aerosol of the Fear Gas.

"You haven't seen me in so long, how could you possibly know?"

Taking his hand from her shoulder he wrapped it around both her wrists holding them together, he sprayed the gas into her face holding her in place.

A small shriek came from her, but she only flinched. There were no wails of terror, and no thrashing to get away from her nightmares.

"What the hell do you think you're doing! I will not be your experiment again, Crane! I shouldn't even be in this damned city in the first place. I promised myself I wouldn't-"

He tossed her onto the bed, and took a seat at the desk trying not to look as excited as he felt.

"How do you feel?"

"I realize you may be the most qualified, but I'd rather not-"

"Answer me."

"First you can answer me."

"Don't be stupid, and answer it for yourself. Now answer."

She had dreaded the realization that had come to her. She was fearless. Literally fearless. And it was the most boring existence in the world.

"Pointless. But it's interesting, and exciting."

"At least you're more honest than you once were."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "We've been apart for a very, very long time, Jonathan. I know more about you than you do me now."

He offered a small, cold smirk and glanced at the desk. There was file left there for him of the documents of all the 'patients' Dr. Orlov had taken before what the rest of the world was announcing her 'accidental' death. Wordlessly he picked it up, and skipped to the last file.

"After you went to university in Metropolis you worked with a few chemical companies, but eventually moved to work as a therapist, and psychiatrist on Stryker's Island. Tsk, tsk now don't be such a copycat."

"I didn't become a bad person."

"No, but look here..." He raised an eyebrow, and smirked. "A woman who seemed to be in a relationship with one of your friends seemed to go missing a little while back shortly after there were some domestic charges filed against her."

"Are you saying I had something to do with it?"

"Even after all these years you ask the most moronic questions."

Jude bit the inside of her cheek to keep from slapping him. They hadn't seen each other in twelve years, and were still worlds apart yet he had the audacity to talk to her like this.

"Did you like helping those people?"

She looked up to see him half-sneering, almost in a twisted attempt at a grin.

"What? The prisoners on the Island? No, it was ridiculous, and pointless work. There wasn't too much wrong with most of them anyhow."

He closed the file, and set it back on the desk.

"In your professional opinion, is there 'too much wrong' with me?"

"You're doing what you think will better the world, but you can really be quite an idiot about it sometimes. You're still an ass, which doesn't surprise me, but you're much more confident now. If you're asking whether or not I would classify you as clinically or criminally insane then the answer is yes. You know that for yourself, Jonathan."

"And the rest of the Rogues? Are they just doing what they believe will 'better' the world? Are we all just our own superhero?"

"No, you're all idiots who take things a few steps too far. I didn't mean better the world in the actual sense of the term. I meant you're being selfish by doing what only you think is right. I'm not too fond of studying up on other Rogue's so I couldn't say."

He kept his eyes glued to her for a few more moments.

"You have to fear something." He said after the silence had been dragged dead. "You used to have this odd fear of scarecrows when we were younger, do you remember? And conflict. You hated the shouting, and yelling so much you would cry every time someone got in a fight in the hallway. Weak and pathetic."

"I suppose I did." She answered blandly. It was obvious he wanted a rise out of her, but she was too tired to play along. "Like you've showed me I don't fear anything any longer. Spray me with more fear gas, take apart my brain piece by piece, do whatever you want just don't ask me question that you don't really need to answer to. I've been a doctor just as long as you have, and have even surpassed you some sense. In case you have forgotten in our many years apart there has been changes in both of us. If you could somehow get me to be able to fear again a part of me would be grateful. If you can't then I guess it is what it is."

"I do not wish to make you fear. Right now, in theory, you could possibly be the most perfect human in the psychological sense. Without fear you can do anything. There are no limits. Though it would be entertaining to see what could possibly make you fear; at this point I have no desire to. In a sense all I want to do is test you limits, and push you. See how far I can get you to the brink. Trust me, I don't undervalue your intelligence Dr. Van Tassel, I never have, and your current achievements don't fail to... mildly impress me."

She shifted on the bed, and lad upon her stomach expecting him to continue rambling on. When he took a pause for air, or to stop she interjected.

"So this is all a test to see if Orlov's experiment worked?"

He gave a curt nod, and stood stiffly.

"Huh, interesting. Am I staying here for the night then?"

"Yes."

"What if I want to leave?"

"You don't. And you can't. This entire warehouse is locked, and only I have the keys." He stuck a bony hand into his pants pocket, and jingled them around for her to hear.

"I could come, and take them from you in the night."

"I barely sleep, and you won't."

"Why won't I? In your professional opinion why in the world wouldn't I of all people want to leave a big, scary, dangerous Gotham Rogue like you?"

He rolled his eyes, and snatched the large file from the desk. "You don't have anyone else."

Grimacing through a smile, she brought the blanket over her head as the door closed with a gentle click.

* * *

**Sorry this might be a little late I have a lot of midterms, and tests coming up, and I've been studying for them. I've been watching Misfits too, have any of you guys seen that show I love it I'm almost halfway done with it. The dynamic between Jonathan and Jude is a little odd right now because they're both still trying to act with each other like they did when they were kids, but they're really really not the same people at all. At their cores they kind of are, but especially with Jude's lack-of-fear thing going now she's a lot different, and maybe a little more cynical and hard. She went to Gotham just in a little hope of being far away from Metropolis, and wanted the chance to be closer to Jonathan because at the time she could still feel a bit of fear, but it slowly went away, and now she can't feel any.**


	6. Spotlight

When Jude woke the next morning all she could see was darkness. Everything was black, and for a moment she wondered whether she was really awake or not. When she tried to move her hands to pinch herself she found that they were tied and bound by thick rope. She was sitting in a cold metal chair, a sign she hadn't been there very long, with her ankles clasped to either leg.

She could hear someone pacing around her. Dress shoe heels were clicking softly on the metal floor.

"Jonathan?"

A dim light flickered above her head, spotlighting her.

Scarecrow admired her bored look, pacing around her. It was obvious she knew what he was doing, but she was playing along all the same. How sweet. He scratched the burlap mask a few times to get her attention, but she didn't seem to react.

A hand stroked the back of her hair, and she shivered.

"What are you doing?" Unsurprisingly her voice was unwavering, but if anything a little annoyance trickled into it.

He didn't respond still.

"Are you angry?" He dragged a hand across her shoulder blades tracing down her arm before coming into the hazy light. She could only make out the shadows of his hideous mask.

There was a tremor in her stomach, and she felt as though a part of her should be frightened, but nothing moved. Her pulse didn't increase, her mind wasn't racing, everything was fine. Scarecrows used to terrify her, but now here was one standing right in front of her, and she couldn't even give it a grimace of discomfort.

"You're annoying."

His hands slapped onto the chairs metal arms, and he leaned closer to her until her nose nearly touched the burlap of the mask.

So this is what Scarecrow looks like. Jonathan has turned himself into a monster.

"You have to be scared of something."

He reached into his pocket to pull out another needle. One of many Jude has seen in this past month, and forced it into her bare forearm. She moaned softly in pain, tugging her ankles against the restraints. There were little black dots clouding her vision for a moment, and then they were gone.

If anything she felt even more relaxed now.

"Well I'm not, and if you put one more ounce or spritz or any amount of that goddamn Fear Gas or toxin- whatever it is- into me I swear to god-"

"You should fear me! I am what you fear!" He shook the chair violently, as she looked him straight on. The angry expression was lost, and met with a soft one. He tore the mask away in a sweeping motion, and returned to her eyes. Scarecrow was gone, it was Jonathan's turn now. "Do you remember what you feared once?"

She looked up at him wearily.

"Being untied could jog my memory."

"You were afraid of strong men, chaos, and scarecrows."

"You were afraid of women, bullies, and crows."

"But now you're different."

"It's been twelve years." She sighed.

"You're perfect now."

Jude didn't avert her eyes from his, keeping steady to see if this was another trick. Everything was an experiment. Everything was always going to be an experiment.

"We've both become what the other feared."

He knelled in front of her, placing both hands on the top of her thighs.

"You have to be afraid of something." He repeated the sentence, but this time in a soft whisper.

"I'm not." She snapped. Her mouth opened to say more, but he immediately cut her off.

"Do you remember when we were younger...?" He began skeptically.

"I try not to."

He glared up at her.

"I'm going to take a few blood samples to have them tested. It's possible that this effect may only last for a limited amount of time." He stood up suddenly then, and paced in and out of the darkness. He came back a final time, yanking her arm and sticking a long cold needle into her. She bit the inside of her cheek, more annoyed than in actual pain.

"Can I go now?"

"No," he said pacing away, "We're not done yet. I have to get these things done before the Batman shows up. He takes an interest in escaped criminals." Jonathan said knowingly as he nodded, and backed into the darkness.

"Let me go! Stop being such an asshole Jonathan!" Her voice rasped and echoed into the empty room. For moment her mind raced, realizing the danger she could be in. Then it was all eerily calm. She felt like a delusional and feral animal tied up going between a brief moment of panic and complete ease. A spark of hope that her fear wasn't entirely gone lit up in her only to be extinguished by the thought of spending time with this Jonathan with it. Without her fear she felt so at ease with him, even more than when they were kids. Though she knew that if she were to showcase even the tiniest aspects of it she would be done for. Jonathan would turn her into a much more gruesome experiment than ever before, and she would end up dead somewhere, tossed in the narrows or her body eaten by hydrofluoric acid in a plastic tub.

Still, with these thoughts bounding around her head she didn't tense or panic. She tried to imagine him doing horrible things to her, but not a sliver of emotion surfaced.

It must have been hours before Jonathan returned. The room had slowly grown warmer and more humid the longer he was away, but as the door swung open a chilled breeze made goosebumps stand up on her arms.

"Who are you?" Jude lifted her head halfheartedly, aching to be out of her soiled clothes.

"I believe we've met before." He answered unblinking, turning on the harsh florescent lights of the gray room.

"Riddles aren't your gimmick, asshole, I just wondered if you were Jonathan or Scarecrow."

"Do you think I would answer either."

"You're Jonathan."

"How marvelous," he stalked over to her, a dull knife in hand, "You can tell the difference." His boringly monotone voice had an edge of coolness to it which she graciously decided to ignore.

"Why did you leave me here?"

"I had other business to attend to."

"Killing people?" She asked throatily as he kneeled by the chair to cut her ties.

"That wasn't the main goal, but sometimes you just have to free people from their fears."

He stood, tossing the rope to a corner in the room. For a moment she only stared at home, mouth partially open. Before the smart comment could reach his mouth, she spoke.

"When exactly did you get entirely fucked up? You weren't this bad when we were kids."

"Like you said, we're different people now. I've been given a new type of freedom. I have less to-"

"Freedom as in getting locked up in Arkham every few months? You're only friend is some riddle spouting genius who you-"

"We are not exactly friends. It is simply that we work in the same type of...field."

"What happens when you get old, Jonathan?"

"My current path of life does not concern you, child."

"If you decide to keep me around for longer, make sure you die first so I get to see the end of it." She sneered.

He merely rolled his eyes in response. With a pale hand he yanked her wrist, forcing her to stand.

"Do you want to take a shower or not? I could gladly leave you in here for a week."

She smirked and pouted the tiniest bit. "You would miss me."

Digging his fingers a little deeper into her arm, he sneered. "Doubt it."

* * *

After dragging Jude back up through a maze of stairs and hallways they were finally back onto the main, empty warehouse level. He peered around the dark, glass loft above them. The relief on his face did not show as he concluded that Edward hadn't been there again. The two were on thin ice, and if he thought bringing back some relic from his past could patch things up then he was wrong.

"Jonathan?"

He took a fleeting glance down at the girl. Moving his hand a little further up her arm he noted the red mark he had left on her wrist. His lips twitched in what Jude thought to be near a smile before contorted back into its regular grimace. Such an interesting experiment, though that woman's obsession with birds and lack of planning that led to her demise, but it was all beside the point. Who knew what sort of strange and sadistic experiments she would have subjected Jude to, he thought realizing his hypocrisy.

But he was conducting experiments with a reason- he justified- and if he had ever decided to make such a thing like whatever this thing was in his hand he wouldn't have given it useless wings. It was a stupid mistake to ruin her crystal clear blue eyes by turning them into such a muddled mess, and her horrible black, stringy hair. It had been so nice, and curling, and soft when they were young.

"Jonathan, are you alright?" The small monster beside him asked softly. "You're just standing there, and-"

"I recognize what I'm doing, child, no need to inform me." He allowed himself to sigh softly, regaining his tight grip on her arm and dragging her toward the metal stairs.

"Are there different clothes for me to change into? Or somewhere that I can wash these clothes?"

"I am not a savage. While I was out today I bought some clothing for you."

She couldn't help but widen her eyes a bit, and cock an eyebrow.

"You went out today?"

They paused at the top only for him to take a chaste look at her and give a tiny sneer. He ignored the eyebrow she kept raised, and pressed his hand to a pad beside the door before entering in a pin.

"Don't act so surprised."

"That's not...and isn't this lock a little cliche?"

"Finish one thought before starting another. You are beginning to sound like a sixteen-year-old again."

She pursed her lips, following him into the hall that flickered to life with unflattering florescent lights.

"I was just wondering why you went out. You just broke out of a high security prison, and there's constantly a warrant out for your arrest. If they find you, then they'll find me." She spoke through gritted teeth. Before she could think not to she shot out a hand to grab the collar of his stained pinstripe shirt. For the first time she noticed little flecks and splashes of rust colored spots. "These cops here are fairly useless, I'll give that to you, but they'll notice there's something wrong me. People know that I've gone missing, and they'll find out who I am. If just one person is so inclined they could do a little digging and find out anything about me. In the mean time I would very much rather not go to prison."

Jonathan watched, or rather admired, as her voice became raspier and the once muddied whites of her eyes began to turn darker. Then it all seemed to snap back. She almost looked more human if anything.

Lifting a hand to wrap around her throat he pulled her's away from him. "Is that a fear then? Going to jail? Losing your freedom because you're such a 'good person' would be a terrible way to go. Maybe you'd even end up in an asylum." He pulled her closer, only closing his hands on the sides of her neck. She would lose some oxygen going to her head, but it wouldn't kill her. "No matter what that woman did to you, you are still weak. You still fear something, everyone does. They like it. You are not a complete imbecile, you understand that everyone loves fear. It's like a drug. What I do is help people. I can thrill them and I can take away their fear." As he gasped through his words he pulled Jude closer. The vice grip around her neck only became stronger with every word of his overdone speech.

"Then scare me." Her breathy voice was barely above a whisper. At this moment she would give anything to feel something, but nothing was happening inside of her. There was no stir or panic, or even a little flutter of excitement. She couldn't enjoy this in the slightest all because she couldn't be afraid of the monster in front of her.

His eyes flashed between human and Scarecrow briefly before he released her. As soon as his hand was by his side her's moved to the angry red marks on the sides of her throat.

"You need to bathe and then we shall eat." He turned away from her, speaking as evenly as possible. After adjusting his glasses he reached a stiff hand up to firmly press between her shoulder blades as he led her down the hall.

* * *

**So, it's been a little while...but with it being well into summer, and I'm finishing up another fic, and I'll have quite a bit of time on my hands in a couple of weeks I will most definitely have time for this again (plus I had to rewrite this and two more chapters because what can you do when you forget to save and suddenly your laptop decides to have a major malfunction hahah). I forgot how much I enjoy writing this, so thank you for any/all reviews**


	7. Dinnertime

Jude peeled the clothes from her body before she turned on the water. The bathroom Jonathan had sent her to didn't have a lock on the inside, but she did hear it click from the outside when she shut the door behind her. It wouldn't matter whether it locked or not. She was stuck up in the loft, and there were no windows. The only light came from the harsh fluorescent lamp above her.

The bathroom itself was impressive. There was a large tub big enough for about three people to lay in, and beside it was one of those new-age showers. It was in the corner of the room and had a curved frosted glass sliding door. There were four tennis ball sized circular spouts on both side, a broad shower head directly above her, and another normal one to the left side. From the wall jutted out four things that looked close enough to seats to sit on.

Before she stepped into the bath she took the time to examine her body in the mirror. Her skin looked so gray now, it was as if she was corpse. The veins on her hands and up her wrists were raised the slightest bit more. She couldn't stand to look at her own eyes even. They were so dark, nearly black, the same as her hair.

"I look...disgusting." Her voice came through in a strained whisper. One of her shaking hands came up to pull at the hair hanging greasy clumps by her face. It had gotten too long anyway. Now it just made her look like something from a child's nightmare. Frantically, but trying not to make a sound, she went through the drawers until she found shears. Pulling all of the limp hair back into a makeshift ponytail, she chopped it off. The rest of her hair fell back into the curtains framing her face. Deciding to have a bit of fun, she pulled a few pieces toward the front, and snipped until they were suitable enough to be called bangs.

Barely looking at the six or so inches in her hand, she tossed it into the pristine toilet. Little clump of hair, and some stray itchy strand fell onto her back brushing against the long scar. That was one part of her she refused to look at so far. She knew there was more than just puckered skin, but she didn't want to acknowledge it. Deciding she had been in the bathroom without showering for enough time, she finally climbed in and slid the door shut behind herself.

* * *

"Jonathan!" Jude knocked on the bathroom door harder, calling his name for a third time. She had changed into the black ribbed tank, loose drawstring jeans, and soft slip-on loafers. There had also been a well-fitted black bra and underwear, but she tried not to think of how exactly Jonathan had known her chest size. It was true she hadn't changed much in physique since they were young, but he could have at least asked.

Thankfully, before she could delve deeper into her own thoughts, the latch clicked and the door swung open, He stood, blocking her path and observing her for a moment. Her hair was curling around her face now, and still very much wet.

"Did you cut your hair because you despise your appearance?" He finally asked with a feather light smirk. It was gone as soon as it appeared.

"One might think you're a doctor the way you talk, Crane. Might want to be careful about that, you know."

It was an obvious evasion of the question, but she didn't care as she tried to duck under his arm. He caught her easily with one arm, and pushed her back into the bathroom with more force than she thought he had in him. With the snap of a hand he turned out the light, and reached for her. Again her arm was held with the vice-grip of his hand as he dragged her out of the room, slamming and locking the door behind them.

"Where did you put the hair?" He demanded.

"Just down the toilet. It wasn't really important, just hair."

Though he pursed his lips, a tight smile briefly appeared. "Of course."

"Does this upset you, Dr. Crane?" She asked after a moment of listening to their footsteps clomp onto the hard tile floor. He rounded a corner without saying a word.

"There is absolutely nothing you could do which could prove to upset me." The flare of his nostrils said otherwise.

"I don't-"

"What you do or do not believe, you will not be receiving a rise out of me tonight if that is what you so seemingly desire. I have had a very long day, Ms. Van Tassel, and I-"

"It's Doctor." She corrected swiftly. The authoritative tone she held so sure nearly two weeks ago was back inside of her for a moment.

"Dr. Van Tassel," he strained, "I do not wish to succumb to your petty whims of arguing. I have no need for it, nor will I in the upcoming future. So if you wish to eat, you should also see to it that you do not act as if you are a common nuisance. Your supposed lack of fear does not give you the right to be as annoying as you were in your prepubescent years."

Her mouth pressed into a tight line. She kept her dark eyes straight ahead as he sat her down. She could only think about was how impressively modern and nice his kitchen looked. It wasn't as if she expected him to live in a trash heap, but the sophisticated, high end furnishings didn't strike her as his style.

Only out of the corner of her eye could she see the steaming food before her. Before she could contemplate the consequences and possibilities of eating what appeared to be Jonathan's cooking, she picked up her fork.

"What is this?"

What was on the plate appeared to be a mess of white mush and breadcrumbs. The smell was good enough, and it was obviously chicken, the rest concerned her. A small churning that came from her stomach frayed her need to question him about the contents of the food. To be perfectly honest she was worried about being drugged again.

"Casserole," he shrugged and returned to the warm vegetables piled beside the lump of mush. "It would be preferable if you were able to survive without sustenance."

"You have to feed yourself too." She sneered putting a mouthful up to her nose. "Don't act like a snob just because I'm human."

"Except you're not."

He took a deep breath through his nose, and lifted a cup of tea to his lips.

"You haven't done any tests on me so how would-"

"End this childish argumentativeness or you will be seriously injured."

Jude kept her eyes trained on his downcast face. He couldn't treat her like some common child. It wasn't right and it wasn't who she was. If he wanted her to be the robotic carbon copy of himself then she could easily apply herself. Or she could be a pain in the ass as a type of punishment for what he was doing now.

"Do you think you would have killed your parents if you had not known me?" It was amazing how something so horrible could slip from his mouth. The sudden reality that she was currently with one of the most horrifying men in the country hit. There was a strange sensation of a tightness in her stomach and throat, yet the dizzying fear and panic did not come.

"It was self defense, and it was only Rick that I got rid of." She grimaced, finally facing her food as he lifted his eyes to stare back at her.

"You can't even say it. It's almost as if you're afraid."

"I killed Rick. Are you happy? I blanked a little bit, there was knife, he killed my mom. It was all quite a rush I was being sloppy, and is not something I generally speak of with most people."

She could feel his cold smirk, but still kept her eyes glued to the food and the lovely oak table. Wood didn't seem to fit with the rest of his black marble-top appliances. It didn't make sense that someone so particular like Jonathan would have a table that stood out from the rest. He certainly had the money. Perhaps he was in fact poorly suited for home decorating, she decided, and had just gotten lucky getting the rest of this matching set.

"Was it better the second time?"

Deep down she knew she should be disgusted. This wasn't something she should answer or even talk about. Even after all these years it wasn't something that she particularly wanted to speak of. When you kill someone you don't go around parading it. She had been so giddy with her father gone, and the same feeling had washed over her when Terra's girlfriend had started that fight with her. Rather when the fight was finished. It was a disgusting feeling of rapture and regret wrapped all in one perfect little package.

"The second time was necessary as the first."

He made a noise that could be confused with a choked giggle. At last she lifted her eyes up to his. His pasty face stuck in a place between smirking and grimacing.

He looks like a sickly Mona Lisa. She thought mindlessly.

"That woman was going to kill my friend if I hadn't stepped in. We got into a bit of a fight, and she lost. That's all there is to it. I didn't intend on killing her."

"Though you did happen to know as to how you could dispose of the body, and not get caught."

"It comes with the line of work," she breathed, rolling her eyes and maintaining eye contact with him. Everything was still a game for power. "How many people have you killed Jonathan?"

There was a look of faint amusement that crossed his face for a moment as he chewed slowly. His eyes moved between the plate, the table, and back up to her rapid succession.

"I could not tell you that, Dr. Van Tassel."

"Do you have a reason? Or maybe you're the one who's afr-"

"I could not tell you because I don't know. If I bothered to keep track of those people that no one else in this city cares for-"

"You mean those people you just take from the Narrows?"

"Of course, you're highly observant and quite an intelligent girl. Can I move on now without interruption?"

"It depends."

His mouth opened with some retort to her comment, but he decided to close it just as a breath of noise came out. Clearing his throat he began again.

"I simply couldn't give you an exact count. Some people kill themselves because of what I do. Now that's just manslaughter. Besides it's all nothing personal. Their suffering is more important to me than the death, unlike you."

"I'm not a monster like you, Jonathan." Shaking her head she pushed her new bangs back and took a long breath in.

"I won't go through something as complex with you. My goal isn't to kill those morons, it just...happens. Like I said nothing personal. I don't let my emotions get in the way as you so often do."

It suddenly didn't make sense. How could she have put up with him for so long? Was he this arrogant when they were kids?

"Like when you scared Sherri and Bo?"

"I was young, foolish-"

"What about Becky Albright?"

In that moment she was thankful that his eyes weren't on her. At that moment his hard stare was boring a hole through the almost empty ceramic plate. She kept her own eyes easily trained on a curl of his hair, ghosting over the rest of his tense body to watch as his bony hand tightened around a knife on the table.

"She's not dead." His voice had dropped to a low and dangerous level.

"Yeah, but you tried. Nothing personal right?"

Jude shrugged and set her fork down on the empty plate. Standing she thought that maybe it would be good to rid of fear. As he stabbed the knife into the table and threw his plate into the sink, shattering it, she didn't flinch.

* * *

**I'm real sorry that it's been a while I was working 12 a couple of weeks ago, and then the next week I had to travel a lot to some family stuff, and my laptop needs a new battery. Soo anyway thank you for reading, and thanks to those who have reviewed!**


	8. Checkup

**Before this chapter I want to apologize for the long wait, and how I said that there wouldn't be. There were multiple deaths in my immediate family and I really needed a break especially from writing this with the amount of death mentioned in it. Thank you to anyone reading this currently, it really means a lot to me. I hope this was at least a little worth the wait :-)**

* * *

Jude watched as he silently loomed. It was interesting. A small swell of pride bloomed in her chest as he became more and more riled up. He was the experiment now. It was all a test to see when he would turn into Scarecrow. She was still a curious psychologist and here was a Gotham Rogue sitting two feet away from her with serious problems. She that she wasn't the best of persons, but Jonathan was a whole other case. Many times she had blamed him for driving her to do the things that she did, though she was never certain if that was entirely true.

There was a slight buzzing in the room that seemed to resonated within the hollow of her temple. It grew louder as the silence dragged on.

She kept her eyes steady upon his dark expression half hidden by his downcast face. It was like there was a click within him. His entire demeanor changed within seconds. Shoulders squared in a domineering way, his back rolled the slightest bit as if he truly was stuffed with hay, and a smile if that's what you could call it graced his gray face. His lips parted as a chuckled rolled up into his mouth.

Another click.

The expression fell from his face.

Jude drew her lips back and furrowed her brow.

With a sharp intake of breath he open his mouth again.

"I won't give you the satisfaction. Do not take me for a fool."

"Was worth a shot." She huffed.

Sighing deeply he stepped forward to take her plate and placed it gently into the sink. He pulled his glassed off and dragged a hand up his forehead. Putting the wiry frames back on he leaned across the table so he could look up at her. Jude crossed her arms defensively and glowered down at him.

"Why did you even come here?"

She wanted to say that there was no reason.

Maybe she had expected to be killed in this hellish city.

Certainly she hadn't expect to find Jonathan. There was absolutely no need for her to. Everything had been on autopilot. She knew that she needed to leave the west coast and Gotham was just about as far away as she could get without a plane ticket.

"I have much more important things to do than babysit a lost raggedy doll." He spat, rising to his full height and stalking toward her. "But here you are," his softened tone surprised her though she didn't show it, "and you could be so useful to me."

She knew that if she could feel uneasy in this moment she would. There was an odd pushing in her stomach like it wanted to feel the emotion, but there was something blocking it. Her mind was calm and clear.

"I didn't come here to be your sidekick."

"What a pity. Here I was thinking you traveled all this way just to meet up with the first man you fell in love with."

"I never loved you." She hissed and placed her hands on her hips and straightening her back as much as she could, vaguely aware that she sounded like a soap opera co-star.

"You wanted me." He bit out coldly. The one thing she wanted more than anything else was to wipe that horribly conceited look off of his face. Fury and wrath swelled up inside of her quicker than she had ever remembered. She was certain that she could end his life. But she wasn't going to. It wasn't right.

"I want to go to sleep right now." She eventually forced out through her teeth.

Looking past her he smirked and shook his head slowly. There were words eating at the edge of his lips, but he bit them back at the last moment. Jonathan rounded the table to claw at her arm with an ice cold hand. "I suppose you need someone to tuck you in?" His voice was barely above a whisper.

The anger and wrath began to grow inside her again. It pooled in her lungs threatening to come out in screams. Her vision sharpened and those lines on her back shook and quivered. As her blood began to boil a soft noise pulled her away from it.

"Interesting."

Slowly, the strange anger began to ebb away. Jonathan's face, though clear, was not in hyper-focus any longer. His cocky smirk had faded away to a blank stare. Though it was clear that he was not indifferent she couldn't read the emotion behind his eyes.

"Well," he gripped her a little tighter, "I guess it must be bedtime for the little corvus." He sighed as he dragged her along.

Jude didn't remember falling asleep. Actually she couldn't seem to remember anything after she was dragged out of the kitchen. She was in her bedroom she had first been left in. It was impossible to tell what time it was. At this point she wasn't sure whether she had been with Crane for a day or a week.

As she stirred the door opened silently.

"Have you experienced any memory loss?"

Jonathan.

She knew the answer but her mouth didn't want to work with the words struggling to get out. Under the thick blanket she felt the soft pajamas she had apparently put on in her haze. Throwing the gray comforter off she sat up and face away from him where he stood. His shiny black shoes shuffled across the floor. A chair was dragged out from the desk beside her bed.

"You're obviously awake. You can still speak I'm sure."

Clearing the huskiness from her voice she twisted to crack her back only briefly facing him. "Yes." Her tone was clipped and short.

"I'm going to be performing a physical exam upon you today. There is clothing in the drawers. Change quickly." He said in that professional business tone that she longed to have back. Without fearing the worst she felt weak. There was no driving force to keep her doing anything, but the even bleaker thought of not being with another person troubled her more.

At first she had ran because she only knew that she had to get out of the city. What had happened to her was unnatural and left her feeling like she was in a dream. Soon the entire west coast was doing the same thing to her. It was a silly notion that something like Jonathan could protect or even save her, but she had to get away. She had to try something. Maybe it was because she knew that he had experience with this kind pharmacology, or so she assumed. There was nothing for her in Gotham save the quick possibility of an unnoticed death.

Pulling on soft, thick navy colored socks she began to imagine how it would have been if that damn Riddler hadn't found her. It bored her to imagine him following all for...for what? Just to be another plaything for Jonathan. She had already been down that road, and looking back it was impressive that she survived it as well as she did. There had to be something more. This had all been too smooth and convenient for everyone except for her and the woman who turned her into this monster.

She pulled the drawstring of the black sweatpants into a crooked bow.

Her body count had slowly risen and she wasn't naive enough to believe that it would stop now that she was with Jon. If he kept up with this snippy attitude she was sure that there would be another tick on her life.

Knock.

"I'm coming now!" She puffed taking long step to reach the door. As her hand ghosted over the handle he pulled it open a bit faster than needed. His hand wrapped around her upper arm and dragged her out of the room with him around the right side corner and down the hall. "You realize that I can just follow you, you don't need to drag me along like some kind of broken doll."

"What a perfectly good descriptor for yourself."

Pursing her lips, she yanked her shoulder away from him hard. He didn't seem to care and only gave a halfhearted glance over his shoulder to make certain that she was still trailing after him. The blue tile clicked with every step he took in his old oxfords. Her shoes squeaked every few moments when she had to skip to keep up with him. His legs were so much longer than hers.

He noticed. Then proceeded to speed up a little more. By the time they had passed all of the off-white walls with two-way glass doors spaced between she was nearly jogging to keep up with him. Taking a sharp left he came to an abrupt stop. Jude smacked into his back so hard she was sure that her nose was broken. He turned the knob as she walked out from behind him to peer into the room. There was a stained cot resting on a rusty bed frame in the middle of the barren white room. Strewn around were a few medical supplies and a couple of notebooks with pens.

"Sit." He gave her a small push between her shoulder blades to coax her into the room. The steps she took into the room echoed as he closed the door behind them. Creaking and moaning the bed sunk under her weight. He dragged a torn up rolling chair from the corner of the room and sat about a foot away from her.

Flipping a few pages through his notebook he began quizzing her as a normal doctor would.

"Do you smoke?"

"Not for three years."

He glared down over his glasses at her condemning the act. Without giving it much thought she shrugged, and tried to adjust herself without the bed moaning to loudly under her.

"How often do you drink alcohol?"

"Very rarely in excess, about one to two times a week."

He jotted a few things down into the notebook, not looking down upon her again.

"Are you regularly sexually active?"

She let out a slow breath. "I wish."

"I'll take that as a no." He said with a grimace and scribbled more. "When was the last time you engaged in a sexual activity?"

"About a month ago."

"I assume you're eating well, regularly exercises. Well," he rushed his eyes up and down her body, "somewhat." There was more scribbling on the paper as he spun around the grab a stethoscope of a metal tray situated near the far wall by the door. Placing a surprisingly gentle hand on her shoulder he pushed her to lie on her back. There were more protests from the cot. "Take off your bra, it'll make this much quicker."

She raised a silent eyebrow, but did as he said anyhow. His cold eyes didn't more from hers as she unhooked it from the back and pulled the straps off under the gray sleeves of the loose cotton shirt he had given her. In any other circumstance it might have been sensual, but this was nothing more than business. She pulled the black, lacy thing from under her shirt and put it beside herself on the bed, not trusting the floors to be clean enough to put any clothing down there.

Without a word he pressed the cold metal into the spots she knew were to check her lungs. She took slow breaths in and out, hoping that this staring contest would end before her dry eyes fell out of her head. When he was done he looked down to the pad of paper again and wrote. The cold metal was pressed up against her breast soon enough as he listened to her heart.

"You heart rate is a bit higher than it should be. Something exciting you a...or is it the bird that hag decided to mix you with?" A question for himself. Her mouth remained shut. That night flashed before her eyes. Everything felt so cold and bleak. She could feel the blade cutting into those horrible things that had been on her back. The warm spray that gushed over her...

"Open your mouth."

She had never been so thankful to hear someone say that. The words dragged her from the dark thoughts as she brought her eyes back up to meet him, sitting up higher on the mattress. He shined around with a little flashlight for a few seconds and murmured something incoherent. Not saying another word he felt around her abdomen for a few moments. As he leaned away to write down more she leaned forward over the bed and rest her head in her palms.

"Is there anything remotely interesting about any of this yet?"

"Very little." He muttered. "However I have more to do."

As his hands patted and rubbed over her breast she had to suck in a sound of annoyance.

"This certainly doesn't seem necessary."

"Settle down." He growled, using a little more force than necessary and being a little sloppy with his motions.

"Cancer seems like the least of my worries right now."

"I'd rather you not have any underlying medical issues, however, before more experimentation begins. It may prove to be problematic down the road."

She bit back a sneer trying not to pay attention to closely as his fingers squeezed and prodded at her nipples cursing herself as they began to harden under his cool touch. This had never happened with any doctor before. As much as she wanted to blame it on the things that had been done to her, she knew that was all a lie. It had been a month since anyone had touched her and even creepy old Crane was turning her on a little now. He kept both hands cupping the outside of her chest and brushed his thumbs over the hardened buds through the soft shirt.

Her hands shot up to grab his wrists and pull them down to rest on her knees before a soft moan could work its way past her throat. "That enough," she swallowed her words.

"Lie down." He smirked down at her. "On your stomach. I need to check the wounds on your back to ensure that they have healed properly, and that the scars are doing well."

Giving a subtle inquisitive look over his face and hands Jude complied once again.

"Do you need me to lift up my shirt?" Her hands were already picking at the hem.

"Yes." He whispered.

She was thankful for his back being turned away to put a few instruments back onto the metal tray as she lifted the shirt over her head. As he turned on his heel she had it stuffed under her chest to conceal anything he might try to gawk at. He would say it was all for show and for the game to see who was dominate, but she knew that he liked to touch her. At least she thought. There had always been a cast of doubt when she was younger, but now it hardly mattered.

It was painful to not be able to watch his face as he examined her bare back. His expressions were already horribly difficult to gauge unless he was enraged or curious. Then his cold skeleton hands were grazing up the still tender parts of her back. The gentleness with which he touched startled her.

"Were you awake?" The furiously hushed tone caught her off guard as well. Still his question brought on an onslaught of painful memories. That moment in time seemed to be the only thing which she could fear. It was the last time she felt fear.

"Yes." Her answered hoarsely.

More fingers trailed up the scar on the right. Then the left. Something soft brushed against her jagged skin as he pressed with slight firmness. A small gasped escaped her lips.

"What was that?"

He carefully noted the dread in her voice. That would be something to write down in the notebook for later. Bringing up this particular memory seemed to have some kind of effect on her.

"You haven't even looked?" There was still barely any smugness in his voice. The hollow tutted that followed wasn't nearly as sarcastic as he would usually give her, she imagined.

Maybe he's feeling something, she thought. For once in his miserable life Jonathan Crane feels sorry for someone and not just in a mock of their stupidity.

"No," she breathed becoming increasingly aware of how cold it was in the room.

"That woman was a fool. Her botched plan to make you some fearless little creature for her to order around had side effects as I'm sure you've noticed. She did this on purpose. Her main field of study was with birds, and she seems to have a obsessive fondness of them which is frankly disturbing."

"Take a look at yourself," she scoffed quietly.

His stern silence told her he acknowledged her, but didn't deem it a good enough retort to bite back. Clearing his throat, he continued.

"Anyhow, there were certain defects which she took it upon herself to alleviate from you before they could present too much of an issue."

"Wings." She swallowed. Hard. Through the haze of all of that blood gushing around her and the woman babbling on about how perfect she was there was a vague memory of the weight upon her back.

"They were useless. Not properly made for any human to be able to fly with them, and she was...well informed enough to know that." His hand slid down, softly tugging at one of the black feathers. "Still when they healed over it seemed some of the remnants decided to remain. It's amazing that she didn't give you a beak and talons for feet."

It was impossible to know whether or not he was joking.

"This may hurt a bit."

Before she could protest one hand was holding her down between her shoulder blades and the other plucked out a feather. A sharp knife-like pain shot into her back as she recoiled into the bed. The dirty mattress smelled like old blood, bleach, and probably more chemicals that she couldn't discern from one another.

Something warm seeped out from where he had torn the feather, but again before she could sit up he was pushing her back down again.

"I'll get you a bandage." He said swiftly. Within seconds there was something wet pressed into her back. At the sting against her skin she drew herself closer still to the mattress arching her back up the slightest bit.

"Don't be such a pansy." He hissed lifting the alcohol wipe and replacing it with a bandage. She flipped onto her back, still holding the shirt tight to cover her chest, to face him.

"Don't tell me-"

"I could just as easily pull another one out of you if you like." He growled, placing his hands on her shoulders and lifting the slightest bit.

"No thanks." She answered and shifted as he put a knee on the bed.

Jon took several small breaths before he opened his mouth again. He loomed over her like a dark mass, his inky hair spilling over his sharp cheekbones.

"What did she use to cut them off?"

"I don't-"

"Do you remember it?"

"I was drugged-"

"How badly did it hurt?" She squinted her eyes up at him. He didn't seem to want her answers. He just wanted a rise out of her. It was obvious that he had seen the fear in her memory earlier and wanted to build on it. "How loudly did you cry out in pain? Can you still feel the soft oozing of your blood all over your back? All naked and bare on a dirty table that fifty or more people have died on. Dripping down you as you woke up. You were so frightened. You've never been more afraid. That hot copper smell penetrating every sense, so strong you must have had a headache. It's a wonder you didn't pass out from the pain. She must have had you chained down. Or maybe you didn't want to run. You didn't run in the beginning. That horrible pain must have been bliss to your dilapidated mind. You have always been the weak one. Oh, how you looked up to me. It was so very endearing, but I was better than you. Always two steps ahead and you just can't catch up. Feeling nothing over the lives you took ate away-"

"That is enough." Her voice gained the kind of power which she had been looking for. It was full of authority and wrath.

His face tilted back away from hers the slightest bit. With each sentence he had inched closer and closer until their noses were touching. She lifted herself up, pushing him back so they were both sitting upright.

"You are being thoroughly ridiculous. If I am to stay here I will not be treated as one of your common street experiments you pick up in the Narrows. I know that I am something much more valuable than that and you will treat me as such. I'm growing quite weary of your ineffectual scare tactics, and would greatly appreciate you to grow up. Treating me as you did when we were teens is doing nothing more than making you seem younger than I know you to be. I do not doubt, Jonathan, that you used much more professional methods while you supervised at Arkham and while you briefly worked at Gotham University. Stop acting like such a common criminal and live up to your name Scarecrow."

Now as she finished she was leaning over him and a dark shadow had creased over her face. Holding the shirt to her chest with one arm and supporting herself with the other sinking into the mattress had been a feat within itself. She was back to how she was at Styker's and it felt great. Though her goal hadn't been to berate Jonathan as thoroughly as she had, she felt good about it even if he would only laugh in her face.

There was no smirk on his lips yet though. He merely narrowed his eyes and glared up at her. Lips pursed he appeared to be considering his words before he parted his lips. Still no noise came out.

"...I suppose that you are...correct. It seems that I have allowed my youth to get the better of me." He finally said coldly.

Jude chewed at her lip and considered her next options. The appeal of the power play was tempting, but she didn't have the motivation to continue. His eyes flitted over her face examining any little motion that could give away how she was going to respond.

"I'm sure you have more work to do today. I'd like to eat, and then I'm content to spend some time alone unless you require me for anything today."

Slowly she backed away from him, turning her back to put the shirt back on now.

"You can help yourself to anything, I'm not hungry. I'll see you tonight at seven thirty. Try to behave more cordially tonight." He sighed passing over to his notebook and scratching down several things. "Walk down this hall and take another left. You may explore this level, but don't try to go down the main warehouse level or the basement."

Her heart jumped at the thought of being able to do a little of something today, but fell with the realization that this high-tech loft would be boring. It was devoid of everything and anything useful or interesting. Maybe she would take a shower and a bath just to pass the time. Counting the number of tiles or stray blood spatters sounded appealing at this point.


	9. Deal? Deal

**Sort of late and all but y'know...holidays. Anyhow I also decided to go through and edit some of the earlier chapters and I posted them to inkitt so I'll probably be reuploading them to here soon no major changes just little things I missed. Anyway I hope you enjoy this! And thank you for reading and supporting me!**

* * *

The next two days dragged on without anything for her to do. Jonathan, still examining the blood work he had taken from her seemed disinterested in anything having to do with her. After exploring the entire loft above the partially lit warehouse she had memorized it's layout. It reminded her of a catwalk where you could watch your prey as it passed by. There were fourteen empty rooms and most seemed to have no purpose. Some were stocked to the ceiling with boxes labeled 'HAZARDOUS'. There was another door made of some kind of thick metal and the locked the would only open with his hand and pin number. She never bothered with that door.

He left her for the entire day until it was dinner. They ate mostly in silence. It was as if life was falling back into a boring, familiar cycle. Jude despised it.

* * *

The third day after the exam Jude stumbled upon something fortunate. Whether it was good or bad fortune was debatable. She had woken later than any other day, and just barely rolled out of bed at what she assumed had to be about noon. After taking a bath that left her feeling overly pruned and soft she took two strolls around the perimeter of the catwalk loft.

Even all of the black and gray clothes and the white tennis shoes Jonathan had brought her were boring. Gotham was supposed to be the exciting dark sister of Metropolis, and here she was stuck with one of the most interesting people being bored. She figured that this must be the hellish reality of any villain in the city. They couldn't constantly be doing evil there were everyday things that she supposed had to be done before they could pull of their next big scheme.

Seeing that thick metal door partially open made her heart jump with intrigue. Having been a psychologist for the worst for so long she could expect what was down there. She gently pushed against the door letting it smoothly swing open to reveal the dim staircase he had dragged her up after the day she spent tied to a chair in the dark. The dirty linoleum floor looked out of place compared to the pristine walls. Little spatters of dried blood that he hadn't bothered to ever clean up looked like dirt.

"You've been sloppy, Jonathan." She whispered to herself, closing the door most of the way.

There was loud banging echoing up the stairwell followed by a couple of screams. As she crept down the narrow stairs taking them one by one the noises only got loud and louder. The light dimmed with each step until, when at the concrete floor, there was almost no light at all. Her hands stretched out in front of her, comforted by the loud noises, and predicting that she wouldn't be found.

She skulked through the dark passageways without one hand on a wall. Every now and then her fingers would snag on a door, and she would have to look to make sure that it wasn't the one he was behind. The banging stopped abruptly, but the screams continued. If she saw the Scarecrow again she was curious as to what he would do with her. Maybe this time around he wouldn't be so gentle.

Like a light at the end of a tunnel there was a bright line coming out from what she could only imagine had to be the lucky door of his next patient. Being this close it was nearly impossible to tell whether the thing on the other side was a human or an animal. The screams were horribly painful to listen to. They didn't make her uncomfortable, but the volume at which this man- she thought it was a man- was yelping made her ears ring.

Biting back a grunt at the sound she went to turn on her heel. This adventure hadn't been nearly as exciting as she had wished.

"Evening, Ms. Van Tassel." A low voice rasped out. The door had swung open without a noise and in it stood something that was not a man. She could tell that without turning around. His voice was unlike the first time she had met him. It had a gentle Southern sway to it, and he sounded just like the inarticulate bumpkins they had grown up with.

Still placing her weight on her heels, she spun back around to face it. The mask hung at a terrifying angle, making him look hollow and truly inhuman.

"Doctor."

His body slumped against the door frame, stooping in a way that looked truly scarecrow-like. He reached a sloppy arm into the room to flick off the light. "Pardon me, we haven't seen each other in a long time." If he was sneering or grinning under the mask, she couldn't tell. "Jonnie ol' boy only gave me a few looks at you. I think he wanted ya' all to 'imself."

"I saw you only a few days ago." Her hand weakly pointed in another direction. In the blackness she wasn't sure where she was referring to.

"'Fraid not, Dr. Jude, I'm sure I woulda' remembered ya'. And I'm thinkin'," he reached out a burlap-gloved hand to sweep under her jaw, "that you woulda' remembered me."

"Then..." she couldn't ignore the scratchy feeling tracing up and down her neck. "Bastard." She said to the floor.

"What's that? Jonnie Boy givin' you the slip up? He's tried that on me a few times." His hand lifted into her hair. "Never really worked out, us bein' of the same mind and all. Or in the same mind, I s'pose."

"You're Scarecrow then?"

She assumed the droop of his head was a nod.

"When have we met before?"

"Oh, ya know, I only ever got peaks and glances. He never wanted ta let me out. Wanted all that control for him, and when he couldn't control I was laid out to be punished." If the things voice could get lower and hoarser it did. The Scarecrow truly sounded like a monster now. "Whenever ya made him a little nervous or those dear little animal instincts kicked in," his hand wrapped around her throat and gave it a gentle squeeze, "I got to peak out."

"I never made Jonathan nervous."

Hand still around her neck he gave out a mighty screech that sounded vaguely like a chuckle.

"He didn't tell you a lot, Dr. Jude. Like how he's scared of bats, how he felt you two were soul mates for the longest time until that bitch showed up." He hissed with a tightening grip around her throat.

"Sherri Squires?" She asked quietly.

With the mention of the name, his body stood up a little straighter. In the next second she was pushed up against the hard wall and he made a low growl. Leaning in so close to her face that the burlap scratched at her nose and forehead he breathed heavily. "Who else?" He panted, grip slackening just a bit. "But after all those unfortunate...happenings of the senior prom after party, he wised up again. Saw how lovely you were. Still are. Specially after hearin' bout how ya killed your ol' man. That riled him up right and good."

A moan from within the pitch black room made both of them swivel their heads.

"Well, I believe you have some business to attend to so I'll just go back up-"

"Nah," he said lazily. Pulling her along by the collar of her shirt he slammed the door shut, and pushed her against it. "I can deal with that after. I wanna talk to you. Ya' see I've been dyin' to tell someone all these things Jonnie just won't let me. 'Sides there jus wasn't anyone curious enough ta tell."

"Is that all?" She asked, sucking her cheeks in a biting down. "It's a bit surprising so...thank you."

"Figured you'd like it." Now she was certain that she could hear the grin through his words. "He used to like it when you'd stutter, get all upset and stuff. Wasn't to pleased with himself when he let that moment slip away that one time in the cabin."

"W-which time?" She wanted to curse herself for not biting out her words clearly. Stuttering had been a difficult thing to get rid of even throughout college, and had only completely abandoned her when she had begun working at Stryker's. Now was not the time to gain back something that had held her back so many times in the past.

"You know," he breathed, "Oh, you know which time. I got ta see you that day. We came in, and he was all red in the face. You two had some sorta silly little power play. He almost used me. Can ya believe it?! He almost used me to take over you, and I gladly woulda'. Would've been the nicest thing he's ever used me for. He lied that day. Said that he was the one that killed his Gram. It was all me. Jonnie Boy just let himself ride out on the excitement that I gave 'im."

After a moment- or maybe more she wasn't sure- of only hearing his labored breathing she clear her throat without reason. She rubbed her dry palms together and pushed lightly against his chest. This extended interaction with Scarecrow was making her feel more and more drained as each word rolled off his mouth. The thing before would have been much more menacing than Jonathan if she could feel anything, that was for certain.

"You should get back to that now." She said quietly.

He seemed to consider it for a moment before slouching back, and giving her a gentle pull away from the door.

"Ask Jonnie about a deal, an exchange, he called it between the two of ya' the next time ya' see him."

Jude took sloppy steps backwards and kept her eyes glued to the monster.

"It's been nice seein' yous again, Judy."

As he slipped back into the shadow of the room she made a sour expression at the nickname. That definitely was not Jonathan. It was an intriguing ghost of a man who couldn't be. So that was how he had survived all of those years with that horrible woman. Some self-saving mechanism that had turned him into a broken boy had also turned him into a monster, or maybe that had been his inherent nature. The argument of nature versus nurture continued to interest her even though those arguments had been seemingly exhausted from both sides.

It was impossible to tell how long it took to get back to the staircase. She kept a hand on the cold wall trying to replay every word Scarecrow had said. All the little secrets that had slipped out of his mouth could be used. Everything he had said wasn't entirely surprising, but it had been fun to listen to. Jonathan's alternate self was much more exciting that he ever was.

* * *

"No wonder you're still such a stick." Jude said under her breath tearing through his nearly empty fridge. It was nearly dinner time, and she still hadn't seen Jonathan since her run-in with Scarecrow downstairs nearly five hours ago.

It seemed to her that torturing people would get exhausting. She finally settled on the cheap looking box of pasta. By the sounds her stomach was making it didn't matter what she put in it. The water couldn't boil fast enough. She wandered around the kitchen scrounging up other little thing she could think of to make the food a little more appealing, only coming up with pepper, butter, and some seasoning with practically everything in it. Just as she dropped the pasta in the floor gave a gentle creak.

"I see you took upon yourself to cook tonight." He sounded tired. Apparently torturing people all day did leave you with a price to pay. She was thankful that he went back to talking like his stoic self. It was Jonathan.

"You're late." She quipped turning away from the stove. The bags under his eyes were puffier than usual and his hair was damp. Remembering the screaming coming from the room down in what she was starting to think of as a dungeon it was likely that he may have had some literal blood to wash from his hands.

"I was preoccupied." He answered rolling his eyes and sitting at the table looking more than bored.

Jude kept her fingers wrapped around the edge of the counter. It took all of her power to not bring up his lies and faking. Jonathan was cunning, but Scarecrow was open and that made him all the more dangerous. The air around her felt thicker and thicker suffocating with every second that they didn't speak. She generally welcomed silence, but this was painful. There were too many questions, too many words that were on the edge of slipping from her mouth.

"He said you had a proposal for me." Her hushed voice was barely above a whisper. She was grateful that her back was too him, pouring the steaming pasta into a strainer. He didn't make a sound as she plated the spaghetti and set it before him.

"A little quid pro quo," he cleared his throat and stared down at the dish. She tried to keep her eyes glued to his, but the low grumbling in her stomach pulled her away. It seemed that he had more to say so she didn't speak. "I would like your assistance. There is a plan which I've been working out, and I would very much like to carry out. It would go smoother if I could rely on you to aid me with it."

For a moment her mind flashed back to the first day in Gotham. The Riddler's car came rushing back into her mind. He had told her to be a distraction. Maybe she was supposed to distract Jonathan from this plan. Then again she had never said yes to the man, and even if she had agreed there was no way that she would follow through with that. It wasn't exactly tops of her list to be a distracting plaything. The title held its own kind of grimy glory, but she didn't like the appeal in this case.

"No."

"Really?" His question and tone were surprising. She had expected him to sound angrier.

Her lips rolled under her teeth a few times before she answered him. "I need to know what you are doing before I commit. I refuse to be involved in an act of terror or large-scale crime."

She looked up in time enough to see him smirk and lean across the table. "Do you really think that you can just go back to having that marvelously boring life after I'm done with you?"

"I never said that I wanted to help some Rogue ruin the innocent lives of bystanders." She said through clenched teeth.

"Innocence doesn't exist. It never did." He scoffed, and began to pick at the food.

"Children, babies, dogs, an-"

"Don't pretend like you care." He cut her off shortly, raising an annoyed eyebrow and grimacing.

"I'm not like you, Jonathan."

He scoffed again. Maybe it was a chuckle. Jude couldn't tell. "You're no hero either. You think that you're protecting people when you kill them, that's the only difference. You make up some little fantasy world where you think you only did what was right. Nothing you do is right. You could care less if those inferior to you perished and you know it. You killed your father, that women, the doctor, and maybe drove some of your patients to death just for fun. I'm honest. That is how we differ. I am honest with my faults and I embrace them. You are still the same whimpering girl who walked in on her daddy and her mommy having a little argument and got lucky. Stop living in this lie."

Her mouth felt dry. "You should take your own advice." It didn't matter if he heard her or not.

"What do you want?" He threw down his silverware and slouched back into the chair looking like a tired mom.

It was hard to keep a small smile from gracing her face. "I want to know what your plan is."

"No."

"Then my answer is no. I'm not here to be some imbecilic sidekick or hench girl. You should already know that. I've seen the way that the Riddler, Penguin, the Joker, and hell even Batman they all just tote along-"

"Fine!" She swallowed her words, hoping that he would cave. "Fine...you can know what you want. I don't have the patience to explain it to you. I promise to give you the file when you go to sleep."

Jude was already hunched over the table, leaning into him and grinning. "I want some time outside in return."

"No, I don't-"

"If you can go out then so can I. No one is going to recognize me, especially not like this. I don't want to be cooped up like this. It doesn't make a difference to me whether or not you watch me or go with me, but I want a little time out of this warehouse."

"That's all?"

She nodded and carefully picked up the noodles.

With a bored shrug he began to slowly peck at the food. "I suppose."

"Really?"

"Do not push my gracious nature. I will not be so kind in the future."

Jude cleared her throat and turned to the nearly cold food under her chin.

* * *

The lack of disturbing detail worried her in the beginning as she skimmed a rough sketch details what exactly Jonathan planned to do.

It seemed there was to be an imbalance in the Gotham mob families and he had been enlisted to help.

Or it is possible that he volunteered.

Jude examined the paper as she climbed into her bed. Jonathan had grabbed it from a room full of filing cabinets before he had tossed her back into her room. She had ignored his slight jab about how she should be able to understand his opening explanation of the plan as it was fit for a 'ten-year-old'.

There was a third family rising up in the ranks. More of an organization, she concluded, seeing as how none of the heads were related. Falcone wouldn't admit it, but they didn't like how it was looking. Even fleas need to be squashed before they turned into a plague. She was thankful for his meticulous overview as way to know the history of the affair. Crossing her legs under her and leaning forward to read the small writing she continued.

I, Jonathan, entered into a deal with Mario Falcone concerning the new crime organization, Amsel, and their current proceedings. Amsel poses as a threat to the now weak Falcone family, and Mario is fearful that it could injure them further. Falcone is already in battle with the Harvey Dent (Two-Face) and the Riddler (Edward Nygma). I have been delegated by Mr. Falcone to come up with a solution to their problem. Since it is my duty as an upstanding Gotham citizen I am obliged to interfere. Simple intimidation is my aim. With Van Tassel this task could be carried out by even the simplest of minds. Use her the lure the men to the specified area, have canisters of Fear Toxin around the warehouse and release it upon them. Then all that is left as detailed by Falcone is to 'get rid' of them. I think some kind of public demonstration of their passing is in order to further ingrain into the minds that this organization shall be no more. Other details in the deal included intimidating the immediate family members of the which I will explore later.

* * *

Biting wind shot at her hands and wet face. She rubbed the angry tears away as she stepped away from the body in front of her. That's all this useless informant had been to her. Blood pooled around broken beer bottles and torn up condoms. He had been useless just like the last. Their information had been exhausted and he wouldn't dare give her another piece. All she wanted to know where that woman was. She wasn't going after that silly Rogue whom they all feared so much they would rather death than to betray him.

"Coward!" She growled down at the body. The flow of blood nearly reached her perfectly white tennis shoes now. It was an amazing thing that they weren't dirty yet. Gotham was doing a toll on her mind and soul, or at least she thought so. Or perhaps it was the recent, violent passing of her mother and all the slander that followed which had left her upset and disillusioned.

Her efforts had been exhausted in the scum of this city. It was time to upgrade. Someone who knew the underbelly of the city and would understand her as well. He would understand her need for justice. That was all she really wanted. Her mother had died horribly, and all she wanted was for that woman responsible to be punished. There hadn't been a fleck of remorse in that monster's face when those chemicals had eaten her mother alive. It was far more disturbing than she had anticipated it to be like watching the Wicked Witch melt away in real life with more blood. But her mother was far from wicked and was no witch.

The thing she created was wicked and- in her opinion- needed to be melted away so that she could go home.

"Hello, Gotham PD?" Rats scurried into the alley as she emerged into the lights of the nightclubs and the restaurants. "My name is Katrina Orlov, I'd like to report a possible suspect in a murder."

* * *

"I am not being your personal sex toy for killing people!"

It was the first time Jonathan had bothered to sit with her at breakfast. Her reaction seemed to please him, and that only made her all the more furious. She huffed loudly out of her nose and glared down at the cold eggs on the white plate. He hadn't spoken once while she had been pouring her anger out over his smirking face.

Finally he let out a small sigh of his own and rested his pointed chin on his knuckles to star up at her. Even standing and leaning over the table it still felt as though he was bigger than her.

"You misunderstand completely." With every second that passed after he spoke she inched back to rest in her seat. "I am knowledgeable enough to understand that you can be of use to me, and since I believe that you will benefit my mission I took it upon myself to include you in the initial plans. In the simplest terms using you in this way will aid in things moving much smoother. It's not as if I am asking you to sleep with any of their men, which would not be out of the realm of possible, but is not necessary to this plan." She had already given him the satisfaction of everything else so why not grimace at the last sentence and let him leer? "Why are you so upset?" Taken out of context it could come across as sincere.

"I don't want to be your pet." She whispered into her lap. "I don't want to be here any more. I didn't ask to be a part of this and I no longer want to be here." His eye roll was almost audible. Anger began to swell up inside of her, but still her voice remained quiet. "Nygma dropped me off here just to be plaything for you. I just want to go back now."

"Well you can't." He snapped. "None of us can go back! I can't! That idiot, Edward, can't! Even the Batman can't go back! You're bridges have been burned. No one forced you to come to Gotham so stop acting like a child and get used to your new life. Though that woman may have ruined other parts of you, but she improved on at least one thing even if it was at the expense of you becoming a sniveling twelve-year-old. You are an improvement in comparison to every weak citizen in this city. Can you not see how special you are?"

If she showed how pleased she was with herself for getting him to scream she knew that he would stop. It was too much fun to pass up. Her complaints had been sincere and true, but now it was time for him to get flustered and upset.

"I think I came to Gotham to kill myself."

She flicked her eyes up to look at the expression on his face. He pursed his lips and took a deep breath in.

"You will not be permitted to do that. I need you to study, and that doesn't make you a pet or a sidewalk or any of the sort. Personally, I find very few people interesting you should take it as a compliment."

Jude raised her face to look at him straight on, mouth on the verge of grinning. "Ecstatic."

"However," his tone softening, "You will still be permitted time outside as I believe it will be productive for your general well-being. Since you eat the most, you can pick out the groceries, and-"

"You know I saw Scarecrow earlier."

"I am aware of-"

"We talked about more than your plan."

"Whatever he said was likely a lie."

The more defensive he became the more excited she did.

"He said that he remembers me. How you used to think we were soul mates and-"

"I'm not playing this game. You've exhausted me for-"

"Tut, tut, it's only polite to speak when no one else is." She swept her arms onto to the table and leaned toward him in a catlike manner. "That one day in the cabin you got so excited just because you saw someone cum for the first time. He said that you almost let him take over so you get with me. How sweet is that? I would have let you then too I think. Still I don't think I ever thought that we were soul mates. I let you dominate me. Because I felt sorry for you and you know you just couldn't do that to anyone else. And probably in some fucked up way I liked it I guess. You like to point out the past as such a fun little trinket to talk about so let's talk. Scarecrow even said that you liked it when I stuttered. That's all you've ever wanted is to be better than everyone else, but look at me. I'm better than you. Like you said I'm not even entirely human and I'm the most perfect little thing that science-"

"Enough of this." The chair scrapped against the floor as he stood.

"Oh, I forgot that it's only worth the wasted time when you're making big long speeches." She sneered to his back.

"Count yourself lucky that I'm still allowing you to leave this warehouse."

For one of the first times in a while Jude actually smiled.


	10. Lost and Found

Katrina was unsure if she was seeing things or not. This man in front of her had to be the Batman, but he seemed to irreparably stupid to put it plainly. The entire conversation he had said nothing save the word 'what' three times now already. He didn't even know who Jude Van Tassel was. Despite being such a renowned psychologist and psychiatrist she was missing. She hadn't shown up to work in weeks and her apartment was empty. It was like she had disappeared into thin air. The cops in Metropolis figured that she was at the bottom of the ocean right now. Katrina knew what really happened and had managed to follow her all the way to this dirty city.

"There are more important things I need to be doing in Gotham than finding your friend. I'm sorry for you, but I'm not the man to help."

She fought the urge to smack him off this skyscraper now. This was the reason the crime rate was still so high. The idiot in the bat suit standing in front of her. Ignoring how painfully cliche she realized the scene was, she rubbed a hand down her face and attempted to continue.

"I don't need you to help me find her. I need her dead. She killed my mother and now she's run away to get away with the crime."

The Batman stood a little straighter with the mention of her dead mother, she noted. Maybe his vendetta against crime wasn't some random act of kindness to the citizens after all. Something had happened to him. While she wasn't concerned about what, she realized that it would be easy to capitalize off of his fears and insecurities. Her mother had always taught her that what people feared was also what made them fight.

"Momma was the only person I had left. I don't know my father and the rest of my family disowned her or maybe they're dead too! She never told me." The tears started to flow over in increasing measure. "I just wanted to know, and she called me to tell me that it was finally time, and I would finally know, but then this..." she hiccuped, enjoying the pained look in his eyes through the mask, "t-this...and now she's g-gone! That woman took all I had left-"

"I can't help you." The stiffness in his spine slackened for a moment while he leaned in to give her a few fatherly pats on the shoulder. There was an ancient sadness deep in his voice which she understood. "I can't help you because you need to do this. I'm no hit-man, that's not my job. You won't feel right if I do anything. Just remember to not become the monsters that they are. You don't want this woman dead you just want your mother alive again. I understand."

After a moment of feigning a type of understanding to his words, she pushed him away half-hoping that he really would toppled over the side of the building into the traffic below. She bit the inside of her cheek taking long strides to the door of the building.

"I'll figure it out on my own!" She barked back to him. "I never thought about a hit-man." It was pure luck that he couldn't hear her last whispered words.

"Good luck." He breathed as she slammed the door. As his eyes traveled out to observe the city there was the Bat Signal was already burning in the sky.

* * *

"I've drilled holes into one side of the gun to silence it a bit. The sound won't go down by much, but at least it's less."

Jude had been ready to leave over two hours ago, but Jonathan had decided to take his time this morning. He even ate breakfast. They were so close to being able to leave, and here he was talking about some useless gun that he had mutilated.

"I don't need a gun." She reached for the door even though it was locked. The keys jingled a bit in his pocket as he swayed back away from her.

"Just take it."

"Aren't those illegal here?"

His eyes were rolling before she was finished.

"Of all things now is not the time to be worried about the legality of owning a firearm in Gotham. Take. It."

Her eyes kept a steady lock on his as she plopped her hand palm up in the space between them. He gave her a smile that didn't reach his eyes as he plopped the pistol into her hand. The slight satisfaction gracing his face made her stomach turn and her eyes narrowed at the thought of pleasing him. All she wanted was to step outside and he had to turn it into something more difficult. She admitted that her behavior two nights ago had been less than appropriate and that maybe she shouldn't have brought up Scarecrow, but it was too late to take any of that back now.

"Can we go now?" She asked after a moment of watching him eye her up and down. He was examining her again and she wasn't going to take it.

"Of course." He gritted out through clenched teeth.

As he pushed past her to unlock the door she tossed the gun into the purse he had given her. It was plain and black, but looked expensive. There were too many bills stuck into a pocket of it for her to count, a little coin purse, and even a phone. While it interested her to think that he had done all of this for her she knew that there were other motives. She was still his dear little experiment, and he needed her to carry out that ridiculous plan for Falcone.

A small pressure at the base of her spine pushed her into the musty smelling air of the warehouse. The metal steps creaked beneath her as the door slam shut with clicked. Jonathan pulled on it three times as she sprinted down the stairs. It was almost painful to wait for him slowly and pointedly stride down each and every step.

"Don't be an asshole." She called from the concrete floor of the hollow building. From down here it was easy to see the square loft that encircled the perimeter of building. A soft blue glow from a few of the rooms lit up the darkness in a ghost like way. There were crates filling the dusty corners and a blocked off part near where she assumed was the door and staircase to the basement.

"Ready?" He snipped, finally making it to the final step. The tweed coat he was wearing hung oddly upon his shoulders almost making him look like he really was filled with straw.

It was impossible for her to tell what the weather outside was, but she doubted that the blue windbreaker she had on would do much of anything.

Jude hadn't been prepared for the strong bite of wind that came swooping in as they stepped out into the outside. Metropolis was always warm, something that she had never really enjoyed entirely, but now was grateful for.

Living in Gotham must be like a colder version of Hell.

"Where are we going?"

She had to jog to catch up with him.

"Why do you go out in public? You're not even trying to hide yourself." She hissed up to him. A tough-looking woman strode by only giving them a cursory glance. Her eyes rested on Jude for a second longer before barely looking into Jonathan's eyes. When Jude shifted her eyes to look at the woman she scurried out of their way and rushed past.

"That's why. All of these people- they fear me. They know that the Batman will come and save them so they don't bother. The cops are lazy and useless as far as their job goes. Half of them a bought out by the big criminals which is substantially less than it was before we had the Dark Knight strolling around. No one cares. If that man really cared for his people he would have killed us the first chance he got."

Jude stuffed her hands into pocket and pulled away from him. "Maybe he just doesn't want to be like you." She muttered.

"Give it a rest."

"I wasn't agreeing with him, that's just my opinion. You must understand him, Jonathan, you've spent more time studying I would assume. You could probably dissect every little thing about him, down to his fears. Superman isn't quite as brooding or dark, not on the outside at least, so he wasn't nearly as interesting as I would assume this man to be. He had his breakdowns, but wasn't quite as big of a crybaby."

Every little noise became distracting as they strode closer and closer to larger and larger swarms of people. There were open shops and children. The wind swooshed and swished around them, whipping up her dark hair. It felt oddly natural. The rest of Gotham pretended that they were normal people. No one screamed or cried in fear or phoned in to tattle on them to the police or Batman. Everything was too normal.

"What's you take on him?" His voice cut through her vague sense of normalcy.

"Hmm?"

"On Batman, what do you think of him?" Jonathan asked earnestly. There was still that pesky underlying tone of superiority, but she ignored it.

"I think that something must have happened, like a trigger, and he decided that he needed to protect everyone else. Someone must have killed his girlfriend or wife, maybe his parents if he's young enough I suppose. Then maybe he just happened to have all this money lying around or spent his time building up all this machinery and weaponry to take out villains. From his general appearance I would assumed that he's probably in his thirties or early forties. He probably gets off on this whole villain catching thing. Maybe he just likes being dominant, or maybe he thinks he's some sort of god now. He might-"

"No." He interrupted coolly. "What do you think of him. What is your opinion on what he does and who he is?"

Jude chewed at her bottom lip, lagging behind him the slightest bit. "I don't know. I've never met him in person, but I've seen how he beats people like you and I'm not sure if I can agree with that. It all seems a little unnecessary and hyper-aggressive for me to fully condone." Jonathan scoffed. "Well if you want to seem so much better than the bad guys then you shouldn't go around beating them half to death just to apprehend them. I'm sure there are better ways to take someone out no matter how angry or personal you take their attacks on the city in general. He was just another fucked up kid like us-"

"Us?"

"Just like us," she rolled her eyes and continued, "And decided that he wanted to fight people that he disagreed with and have the cops as backup."

"The GCPD do not enjoy his presence very often. They tolerate him, but Commissioner Gordon is so enthralled by him that he allows the man to keep doing what he does."

She mulled it over for a moment. It wasn't as if the government had been too keen on Superman in the first place, though that had to do more with his unnatural abilities. Again the sounds came crashing in around her, pulling her senses every way imaginable until she slowly reeled herself back in.

"I'm not saying what he does isn't right, but it's not wrong either. If the cops are useless then I suppose it is nice to have someone like that around to put people like you in Arkham where you belong."

He took a sharp breath in. "It was people like us a moment ago." While she remained silent he continued. "Where do you think you belong right now?"

She shrugged and turned away from him. The crowds had died down but there was still a buzzing in her ears. It was obvious now that the experiment had done a bit more than she had initially thought, or maybe it was all the time she had spent in solitude or with Jonathan over the past week or so. The days had all run into one another and she wasn't sure at this point.

* * *

"I feel like a ghost." Jude admitted as he took her into the alley beside the warehouse to unlock the side door.

"Interesting." He nodded.

She pushed some of the plastic grocery bags higher up her arms as the door swung open just enough for her to fit through behind him. While she debated over whether to pick up parsley or rosemary he was across the street in a typewriter shop doing business. The walk back to the warehouse had been painfully long and quiet. Jude's palms were an angry red from the heavy bags. Jonathan hadn't even bothered to offer his help.

"Why do you think that is?"

It was impressive that he never stopped doing his job. Always a psychologist, always interested and curious. Still, though the situation seemed odd, she continued.

"I think I died that day. When she did whatever she did to me. I think I stopped existing. Maybe I'm still in shock, but that doesn't seem possible. I can only assume that it's another effect of this." He was locking the door behind them as she scaled the rattling steps. It didn't matter to her whether or not he listened. "I feel empty."

"You've been afraid all your life how can imagine to feel good about suddenly not having that sort of thing in your life. People need to be slowly led away from their fear. That was one crucial which that woman did not understand therefore leading to the massive body pile-up she had accumulated prior to you. It is sheer luck that you even survived."

Jude stepped out of the way so he could unlock the door to the loft.

"She said that she knew about me and you. While I was there she told me that she researched me and found all of these little things that led her to realize what had really happened and what I had done." Her teeth gritted a little harder with every word.

"So you think you're special?" He asked. "That you weren't some random mistake."

"That's not what I meant." She said pushing past him into the long hallway.

"It's a wonder that you even got a doctorate without having the capability of simple articulation."

The groceries had all dropped out of her hand and she had him pushed up against the nearest wall by the collar of his shirt before he could crack out another half-smirk. Staring up at his leering face she felt a white hot anger burn inside of her.

"Enough." She growled.

Something flashed in his eyes and for a moment she was wondering if he would just maybe turn into Scarecrow.

"I will take every other petty insult you can think inside that split up mind, but you will not insult my work or mind. We can stop this silly game now. I won't attack for Becky, or Scarecrow, or something screwed up love-lust you had for me when we were younger and you won't do the same. You will not insult my work, my intelligence, or whatever I did when we were children. Those days are over Jonathan and I advice that you start acting your age."

It seemed impossible for him to frown any deeper.

"I accept." He pushed out through closed teeth.

After another moment of the raging silent battle between their hard stares, she pushed herself away from him picked up the bags again.

"We're having sole meuniere for dinner!" She huffed.

* * *

Jude watched her skin slowly turn pink in the hot water of the tub. Her and Jonathan had only spoken in passing since he had let her out to the store. She had bought a mini calender and planner at the store and kept the receipt so she could remember what day it was. It seemed that he spent more and more time downstairs as the days dragged on.

Pushing around the blueish bubbles from the cheap soap she counted up the days.

Fifteen.

He promised that we would go out again.

The soft feathers which lined up the jagged scars pressed softly into her back. Sighing deeply pulled away from the cold side of the tub to examine her yellowing and chipped nails. Taking a deep breath she pushed herself under the water completely and opened her eyes. The way the water distorted and blurred her vision seemed to showcase how she was feeling. Over and over again she had said it, but no one was ever there to hear her complaints. This didn't feel right. It was odd to her that there wasn't a large search party out for her right now, then again she hadn't seen a newspaper in days and hadn't bothered to pick one up at the store. Her workplace revered her as one of their top supervisors they wouldn't just let her run away without an explanation. She didn't have very many friends outside of the workplace so there was no worry in that.

...but Logan and Terra are probably worried.

Do you honestly think that they would come looking for us? They knew that we don't really care about them. Useless and weak personal devices we only used for our own pointless-

Jude shot out of the water coughing and sputtering. There had been another voice creeping into her mind that barely sounded like her own. Those certainly weren't her thoughts. It seemed like that she would develop a personality disorder now of all times, but she didn't like the idea of it. The voice had sounded so cold and distant she knew if she just...but Jonathan would find out. Even with- or perhaps especially with- his own bouts of madness he would recognize and monopolize right away on this development. Or maybe she was just kidding herself. It could have just been a little fluke. A little vicious thought that was unreal, but still stuck in the back of her mind. Though she didn't consider herself particularly close with the two she regretted their last meeting and how she rushed away. They were the two people she had come closest to loving like family since her mother.

Pushing her inky hair out of her face she pulled the stopper from the tub and stepped out. Goosebumps puckered up on her arms and legs and she toweled off and stood to the side of the large mirror. She had refused to look at herself to closely since she had cut off her hair. It wasn't the short hair that bothered her, it was knowing what the rest of her body looked like. Her body didn't match her. She didn't like the darkness of her hair or the sallowness of her skin or how her eyes were lifeless, muddy orbs now. She looked like a dead body.

A bright spot of red on the white towel pulled Jude from her personal pity party.

"Shit," she dropped onto her knees and tore open the cabinets below the sink hoping and praying that maybe Jonathan had been smart enough to buy at least something that she could use. "Shit, shit, shit..." or maybe he wouldn't have even thought about it. It seemed as though he had gotten everything else and more, but this one little thing he hadn't thought of. Pulling shampoo and soaps out of the dark she finally breathed a sigh of relief. Stuck in the back were two little black boxes. She felt a mixture of grateful and concerned by the fact that he knew that she would be staying here for such an extended period of time.

Hugging her lower abdomen protectively through the gray sweatpants she stumbled out into the hall and slowly made her way to the hall.

* * *

Jonathan swayed into the kitchen splatter in red and smelling like copper a little past three in the morning. His usual ugly sweater vest was hanging limply in one hand and a few of the buttons on his cream collared shirt were open. A sheen of sweat was still glowing on his flushed face as he plopped down at the table and tossed the stained burlap mask onto it.

"You're going to wreak your body if you keep staying up this late."

He nearly jumped at the sound. Holding his head in his hands he hadn't even seen her sitting on the floor in front of the sink with a glass of water clutched in her small hands.

"Thanks, Doctor, but I think I'm fine." His voice was hoarse and yearning for the water she had. He licked his chapped lips and leaned back in the chair.

"Do you want anything to drink or eat?"

It amazed him how gentle and quiet her voice was now.

"Why are you still awake? Aren't you afraid that it's going to wreck your body?" He sneered.

She smiled gently and stood with a small moan of pain. The noise she made caused his ears to prick up just a bit.

"Couldn't sleep, I didn't have a choice." She yawned, standing up on her toes to reach the glasses in the cabinet over the counter.

"It wasn't me." He muttered as she strode over to the fridge to get water from the dispenser. Before the glass was even rest on the table he had snatched it up and taken a gulp.

"I know," she breathed heavily. Instead of sitting across from him as usual she sat at the chair between the two ends and drank the rest of her own water before lazily resting her head in her palms. Her eyes drooped with sleep as she watched him intently. "Does he talk to you even when he's not in charge?" She asked after a long pause of hazy silence.

Jonathan shifted in his chair and took another drink before it appeared he was even considering the question. "I suppose sometimes. Not very often, and it is blurry sometimes. We can both be...in control for a lack of better words, but sometimes he takes over completely. I don't mind for the most part."

"Describe it to me."

He rubbed at his eyes and stretched his sore shoulders. It wasn't the most ideal time to describe himself to her.

"We're both there most of the time, but generally I am the most lucid and therefore I am in charge. He just...takes over when I get too upset. A side affect of my youth I take it. He's more violent and rash. Takes more pleasure in the pain of others. I find myself a bit indifferent to it, but he has to feel something or I fear that he may become to restless and force himself to the surface more often. I prefer myself to be in charge as that idiot would get us in more...trouble than it's worth." Each word struggled through his sleepy voice. It was impossible to tell whether or not Jude was even paying attention with her half shut eyelids.

"Mhmm, you do understand that medically speaking you are severely ill?" She asked in a hushed voice, struggling to keep her eyes open.

"I couldn't care less."

Sighing loudly she nestled her head into her arms and began taking even breaths.

"Do you plan on sleeping in the kitchen? I was planning on going outside tomorrow, but if you sleep out-"

"I'm going," she muttered. Jonathan watched as she scraped back her chair and stood to leave. She carefully placed her glass in the sink and shuffled out of the room. "And take a shower!" Her sleepy voice echoed back through the doorway.

* * *

"Meet me in the alley in roughly two hours." Jonathan turned in the opposite direction of where the grocery store was. In the shadow of dusk Jude shivered as a gust of wind flew through her jacket.

"You're not coming with me?"

His sighed, "I have other business to attend to. Do you not remember where the store is?"

"No, I do. I just..." She trailed off.

"Then what? Call me if you need anything." He huffed, turning on his heel.

She stood in the shivering cold, feeling cheated and dumb. There was so much of Gotham that she still didn't know about, and honestly she wasn't sure how to get to the store. But Jonathan was already gone and lost from her sight between the high buildings and setting sun.

Shrugging away the cold she turned in the other way and began walking.

* * *

About halfway back from the store she was lost. None of the same gray buildings looked like the ones that she knew she had passed an hour ago. It was completely dark outside now, and she was supposed to meet him back at the warehouse in twenty minutes. Panicked and distressed she soldiered on in what she assumed was the same general direction.

"Hey!"

The high voice nearly made her drop the bags in her hands shaking from the cold. They couldn't have been talking to her though. No one knew her here.

"Hey!" It called a little louder this time. A bony hand slammed down on her shoulder, paralyzing her. A scrawny man, smaller than Jonathan turned her until she was nearly facing him.

"What do you need?" She tried to sound polite.

"You just look like you're lost, and I figured I could help." He smiled brightly. It was a sketchy proposal, but he didn't look like much so she just shook her head coldly.

"I can find my way."

All she had to do was call Jonathan and he could help. This piece of garbage standing before her was useless and a creep.

"Y'know, I'm real sorry, but-"

A switchblade tore out of his sleeve and was aim for her stomach. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Her vision adjusted fully to the dark street and the blood rushed through her ears. The bags dropped from her hands. She could feel her pulse increasing by the millisecond. Her hand snatched his scrawny wrist and propelled the weapon into his face while she aimed for his groin with her foot.

The man watched in horror as the little woman before him slashed his cheek with his own knife. She was more intimidating than the girl had made her sound. Her eyes were a murky brownish color that only seemed to darken as the seconds ticked by. He had been kicked around before, by woman and men alike, but this knee to his manhood was stronger than he had ever felt before. Her face, waxy like the moonlight rising above them, seemed to contort into something verging on the side of monstrous. As blue veins glowed through her translucent skin he heard his wrist pop painfully. Her foot lift to kick his shoulder down so he was lying on his back winded and staring up. She loomed over him threateningly holding the knife to his neck.

"Why?"

That's all she said.

The knife pressed into his skin until little drops of warm blood fell down. It hadn't been in his contract to not tell who he was working for, and he was new to this game. His life was valued above hit-man silent code of conduct or whatever.

"Why?" Her voice sounded like a hiss. She pushed a tennis shoe clad foot into the most flimsy part of his rib cage.

"Some chick, Katrina Orlov, she sent me to kill yous. I don't have nothin' again ya, it's just my job. Y'know you could just let me-"

His words stopped when the knife was stabbed straight into his throat. The sickening squelch and pop of muscles and tendons echoed in his ears as the blood poured and spattered up. He tried to squirm to rip the thing out, but she was standing on both of his hands.

Jude wasn't sure what entirely had happened when she blinked a few hard times. There was a dead man lying on the concrete below her with a knife lodged in his throat. She remembered it like a little video clip from a blurred memory. It was the man that had aggressively offered to give her directions, but when he pulled the knife it was as if she hadn't been in control. Backing away from the body she realized something, and felt like crying.

She had been scared.

A bright smile was engraved onto her face and she swooped to pick up her purse. Pulling out her phone she beamed into the bright screen and dial the only number in the contacts.

"I think I am a bit lost. Could you come pick me up or tell me where to go?"

There was heavy sigh from the other side.

"I don't have the time or patience to tell you how, though I have no idea how you got yourself lost." Even his little quips couldn't tear down her excited mood. "Read the nearest building name to me."

"I'm right in front of Chestnut Law Offices." He made a sound of dissapointed recognition. "And don't sound so upset, I have a something for you." She giggled. The amount of silence from the other end was deafening.

"Nothing you could have would please me at the moment."

Jude rolled her eyes and hung up. Getting together all of the plastic bag strewn on the ground she sat on the cold, metal bench in front of the building and the dead man and waited.

He'll eat his words.

* * *

**Yessss, I have been waiting so long to put Katrina Orlov in this story dear god. I know she was in the last chapter (I think?), but she comes out a little more here I think. Honestly she was my whole basis for the idea of this story and while she isn't going to be the only antagonist for Jude she is the first and she is my own little creation so I'm pleased. She's sort of an anti-Batman I guess? It should be obvious by now, but her mother was the Doctor that turned Jude into this, and now she has this silly vendetta out for Jude. Why was Jude scared by this scrawny hitman? Why did some scrawny guy decide to be a hitman I mean? I don't think I even have the answer to that one tbh (actually I do he just wanted to pay the bills for his ex their child because he still loves his kid dearly even though him and the ex don't want to be together anymore because they had this child when they v v young and have become different people so can't be together any long and he couldn't find any other work so decided that killing people is easiest ever since he got kinda kicked out of the drug trade when the gang he was with collapsed) no idea.**

**Anyhow, thank you so much for reading and have a good day!**


	11. House Guest

**Whew sorry for the wait I haven't had stable wifi since New Years which thankfully granted me with more time to write so this one is a little bit longer, and there's a little more action. And also a bit more violence (though I don't think it's terribly graphic but if you're not into that then you may want to skip/skim this chapter)**

* * *

He was silent. It seemed as if he sensed something was off as soon as he had stepped out of the navy sedan. That could do with the tiny flecks of blood splattered on her face. Jude beamed up at him from the bench. Wind rippled through the empty street.

"I'm going to stand by what I said earlier. This does not please me." His tone was short and clipped.

Jude rolled her eyes and hopped out of the bench to glance behind her at the body.

"That's not what I was talking about. I'll tell you when we get home, just help me with this."

Jonathan narrowed his eyes and took wary steps toward the man.

"Did he attack you first?"

"Yes," she debated on whether she should divulge the rest to him, but there was nothing to lose now, "He was a hit man, and said that someone named Katrina Orlov sent him."

"The name is familiar."

She could hear the eye roll in his words as he placed one foot on the chest of the body to tear out the knife. A little bit of blood came up to hit him in the face. He pocketed it and turned away.

"That's it?" She asked rocking back and forth on the heels of her feet.

"That's it." He opened the back door and helped her place the bags in the car. Glaring down over the rim of his glasses he examined her. "Why are you so happy?"

Jude felt like she could hug him, instead she just grabbed his elbows and smiled brightly. "He scared me! I was actually...I can feel fear. He pulled the knife out and then something just happened, and then he was dead." The words were tumbling out of her mouth almost too fast for him to understand.

Jonathan's brows knit so close together a solid crease lined down the middle of his forehead.

"Get in the car." He said rigidly.

"So some common rat can put fear into you, but I can't?" He asked once they were up in the loft again. The entire ride home he had been silent.

"Maybe I knew that you wouldn't kill me." She answered airily.

"You don't think so." He growled, grabbing her wrist and pulling her a little harder than necessary down the hallway.

"Well, no...I'm not sure. Maybe it's just wearing off. I mean right after it happened I was terrified, it felt like I was an animal. That's when I killed her. I think I was the one who killed her, it's all a bit blurry. I thought that all my fear had been exhausted then, but I guess not." She sputtered out as he dragged her. Still holding tightly, he ripped open the door to one of the empty rooms a shoved her in. As the door slammed and locked behind her she waited for her heart to speed up, for the same acute awareness to come in, but there was nothing. She wasn't scared any more. The fearlessness had returned.

From her spot on the floor she watched him with contempt. There was going to be bruise on her arm and maybe her lower back from how hard he had tossed her onto the ground.

"There's nothing wrong with you. I think that I knew that I had to kill him and then that happened. I didn't have to kill you and I wasn't going to."

"It is a primordial fear of your life! I," he jabbed his thumb so hard into his chest she thought he might break it, "I should be able to do that. The Fear Toxin should do that to you!"

Jude rolled her eyes at his tantrum, and pushed herself a little off the floor.

"I can't control it. Listen, maybe it wasn't even fear. Maybe I was just angry and the blur of killing someone felt like fear. I wasn't paying attention to closely. I just figured that if I had killed someone like that then I must have been afraid of them. It was like...like a reflex. He pulled the knife out and I beat him before he could-"

She stopped abruptly and stood.

"Shouldn't you be more concerned about the fact that there is a person sending hit men after me?"

He shrugged and avoided her sharp gaze. Jude shot out a hand to force him to look at her.

"If I'm such a precious experiment you should keep better care of me."

Pushing her away he scoffed. "You can take care of yourself. I gave you gun for a reason. Besides," he eyed her critically, "I think I would like to watch you kill someone." She watched the gears turning behind his eyes. "What did it feel like? In your head?"

Even though she didn't appreciate the hungry look he was giving her she answered.

"It was like watching an old video. I wasn't really sure what I was doing, but I was doing it anyway." Each sentence sounded like an unsure question. "Well I suppose I knew what I was doing, but I didn't have any control. I don't regret it, but I'm not sure if it's what I meant to do."

"Did it feel like someone else was in charge?" He asked excitedly.

She cleared her throat and shook her head at first. Slowly her expression fell and she looked over his shoulder to answer.

"I suppose."

A wolfish grin had broken out on his stoic features.

"I guess I was wrong. This does please me. Very much."

"It happened again." Jude rasped over the cell. She had figured out how to get home this time, and it was light out which made it easier. While she had been wasting time in an alley a few streets away from the warehouse wasting time until she had to meet up with Jonathan again two people had approached her. They were much, much bigger than the first little man. This time the gun came in handy. The same feeling mixed with dread fury washed over her. She was sitting in the back of her head letting someone else do the work.

"Come back now." His tone was totally unreadable over the phone.

Giving a small glance at the men each with blood seeping from their stomach and temple Jude shook her head and clutched the purse closely to her body.

It had only been three days since that other hit man had come after her, and now these two. They had admitted to working for Orlov as well before she had shot them in the brains. Or at least she thought that it was her. It hadn't felt like her hand that had pulled the trigger, but it didn't make a difference to her now.

It's like he wants me kill more people. He wouldn't let me out for my own good otherwise.

When she came upon the warehouse he was already outside leaning against the concrete walls of the cracked building. His rosy nose and cheeks looked odd against the gray pale of his face. She couldn't read the expression on his face, nor did she examine him too closely to try.

"I don't like how quickly this is happening." She stated once in comfortable earshot.

"That's how Gotham works. You can turn this city to ruins and back again in a day." His drawled out words. "I'm sorry that we don't pace ourselves like our Metropolis counterpart." Each p was popped with excessive emphasis.

She drew together her eyebrows.

"Are you upset with me? I didn't ask to be followed around by hit men sent by someone person who I've never even-"

"It's her daughter."

He smirked as she took a sharp intake of breath. A wall of defensiveness grew as her face twisted up in disgust.

"Let's go inside."

Keeping his small smile, Jonathan traipsed along behind. He held his tongue until they were safely up the stairs to the loft. Jude ripped off the thin jacket and held it

"Somewhat funny, don't you think?"

He kept a good distance behind her, watching as the muscles in her shoulders tensed.

"I don't find any humor in my life being threatened."

The strain in her voice only made his grin widen bit by bit.

"Her setting out to kill the person who killed her mother. So sweet and endearing wouldn't you think? You have experience in killing for the ones you love so you-"

She turned so quickly on her heels that there was a resounding pop that came from her knee.

"Rick was a monster. That woman was a monster. I was bleeding out from giant slits on my back and barely conscious if it isn't enough to say that she deserved it, and that it was in self defense." Before her tone could raise and more, she sucked her cheeks in and turned away from him again. "Besides she shouldn't have been so idiotic to have barrels of chemicals just lying around the room."

"A bit defensive of all the notches in your killing belt, aren't we?"

Jude closed her eyes slowly and took a deep breath in and out. She could feel that stupid smirk still plastered on his face before she turned around.

"Do you even hear yourself?" She asked. His expression fell the slightest bit. With each word she took a tempered step toward him. "You sound like cheesy ass villain straight out of shitty mass produced comic." She gave him a light tap on his cheeks before resting gently resting her hand against his face. A serene expression crossed her face for only a moment before she opened her mouth again. "How the hell do you and the rest of the underground even intimidate Gotham?"

Swatting her hand away he pressed past her in the narrow hall.

"And I'm not trying to justify anything!" Jude called after him.

After he had rounded the next corner she let out the breath constricting in the bottom of her stomach. She was grateful for more time alone.

* * *

_Jude spun around before she even heard the men coming. They were silent brooding giants blocking out the sun. She could feel that same thing flip like a switch in her mind. A gentle humming began in the base of her neck as the men advanced._

_"What's your name?" The one on the right asked._

_A voice she didn't recognize made a noise deep in the back of her throat. She say back and watched the events unfold before her._

_"Corvus."_

_It was her mouth moving. At least she assumed it to be, neither of the men had spoken. The skin on her back where those useless wings used to be burned. She watched herself fire the gun at both of them. For a moment she was taken aback by how precise the shots to their guts had been. Working at Stryker's there had been mandatory gun training, but she didn't have the need for one ever before._

_The words she had spoken suddenly caught up with her._

_Corvus._

_Her mouth was moving again, but she was focused on that word. She didn't even know what it meant. Or why she would say that it was her name._

_"...we are." One of the men croaked under her._

_Without any say from Jude two more shots were fired into their skulls. Slowly she blinked to the front of her consciousness._

_**Call him. We need him**._

_Panic rose like bile up her throat. Her heart pumped wildly in her chest as she stared down at the lifeless eyes under her. She jerkily spun around to make sure that the deserted street was still empty._

_"There's no we." She whispered._

_**We need him**._

_"Stop talking."_

_Jude crouched and pulled the hair by the sides of her temple. Her head felt like it was splitting._

_**Get off the ground**, the voice hissed. **Call Scarecrow...he'll want to hear about me. Tell Scarecrow about me**._

_"No! He can't...he can't..."_

_"**Why not**?" The voice had traveled out of her mouth this time._

_"I don't...Scarecrow's not the right..." Her lip quivered as she stared down at the gun in her shaking hands._

_"**Scarecrow loves you**."_

_"Stop talking!"_

_A line of pigeons swooped off the building above her with loud squawks. She fell onto the ground with her hands above her head again. As the world became silent again she felt alone. Her heart began to slow and the shaking stopped. She took a deep breath and reached for the cellphone._

* * *

"Tell me about Katrina Orlov."

Jonathan sat opposite of her with his face hidden behind a paper.

Death Toll Reaches 13 in Mysterious Slayings

Jude tried to ignore the headline. There was a picture of tired looking police officers guarding a taped off crime scene.

"Curious now? It's been a while since we last spoke of her."

She tapped her nails on the table impatiently. The second hand on the clock above the doorway seemed to get louder as the silence dragged on. It had been three weeks since they had even had a real conversation. Jonathan had spent four days out of the warehouse the week before leaving Jude to wander like a ghost around the empty loft. She considered going downstairs to see those people he might still have tied up, but it was just the other voice. Corvus. That's what it kept calling itself anyhow. With each threat she let it take over without much of a struggle. As the fights ended there were whispers about love and lust for Jonathan's other side that she pushed away immediately.

"Yes." She finally answered.

He breathed in deeply through his nose before loudly smacking the paper down on the table.

"Let's a learn a little then, shall we?"

The chair scraped across the floor as she hurried to follow him out of the door.

He was ten paces ahead of her reaching for the door to a room that she recognized. It was the single room that was always locked. No matter what she couldn't even look under the sealed cracked at the bottom and there was no keyhole to peep through. She knew what it was, but remained silent as Jonathan took a plastic card a bit smaller than a visa out of his pocket and slid it into a slit between the frame and the door. There were three distinct clicks and turns as it released and opened.

The room was larger than any of the others. There was a single oak dress pressed against the deep green wallpaper and king size bed placed off center with its headboard pulled the slightest bit away from the wall. Beside it was an old looking bookshelf filled from top to bottom with antique-looking books and textbooks. There was a massive amount of open space and then to their right was a wall filled with monitors and computer screens with a long desk covered in papers, books, and pens. The messiness of the desk seemed out of place with the rest of the pristine room.

When she swept her eyes across again she noticed another door nearly hidden by the massive piles on the desk. He even had his own bathroom.

"Katrina Orlov." Jonathan said as he rested into the computer chair. His fingers swept across the board until two of the four screens came to life.

"Can't you just make her stop?" She crouched on the floor by his side and stared into the empty screen as he kept typing. "You have people who work for you, just have them handle it."

"She is none of my concern."

"She is if she kills me."

"Then why don't you kill her?" He asked with a huff.

"I've never even seen her." Jude was swaying on the inside. She knew the right answer was to say that she wasn't going to kill her because that would be wrong, but she wasn't entirely sure. "She'll just keep sending those hit-men until one of them gets me."

"She knows nothing of contract killers or death otherwise you would be dead already. All of those who have approached you have done so weakly. Though," he scrolled through and endless feed of tiny text, "it appears as if she is doing it on purpose."

Jude scoffed. "Hiring people that can't kill me? That seems like a waste of money. I'm sure a sniper would cost more, but wouldn't..."

Jonathan slowly shushed her as he read, his eyes darting across the words before she could argue.

"Not in that sense. It appears as if she wants people who are messy." A grin broke out on his features, and she recoiled the slightest bit. "She doesn't want people who will take you out in one shot essentially. It seems as if she is purposely looking for people who will present you with all types of ill will before they chose to end your life."

"She wants to torture me?" Jude asked at last. "Did she even know what her mother did? That woman killed nearly a hundred or more people before me, and would have kept going had I not lived and accidentally ended her life. Why can't this...why can't she just see that there was no malicious intent. The police even said so in some of the papers that I read. They found that room-"

"What room?" He cut in curiously.

"Th-there was a room filled to baggies of the clothes and belongings of the people before me." Her words were fast and forced so she could get to her own point. "They said it was some grace of God that she was stopped either by one of the people she experiment on or just a random lab accident."

He leaned back into the chair and stared down at her over the rim of his glasses.

"Love knows no boundaries." He whispered.

"No boundaries my ass. She seems like a reckless carbon copy of her mother."

"Makes her all the more dangerous, wouldn't you say?"

Jude rolled her eyes and returned to glossing over the screen.

"She's still a child, of course she's dangerous."

"You were nearly done with college when you were twenty."

She stood quicker than she should of with a huff. "Why do you feel the need to defend everything about her?"

His eyes returned to the screen so he didn't have to look up at her.

"I knew it would bother you." He breathed in slowly and scrolled through the text on both monitors. "She's twenty, was a bio engineer major in Northern California until dropping out recently after her mother's death," he read off in bored monotone. "There's nothing about a father so I would assume that she only knew of her mother-"

"Which would explain the strong bond."

"Yes, you're very intuitive thank you." She had to purse her lips to keep silent as he continued. "Born and raised in Kansas, she went to a nice school, received high marks, all very normal of course. All rather boring."

Jude paced around the room with an angry spark igniting in her lungs. If her knew this much about her already he could have taken care of her a long time ago.

"This is your problem." She glared daggers into the back of his head and dropped onto the large bed. "Be a big girl and fix it." He swiveled around to face her with his feet pointed away from each other. Jude sighed and fell onto her back so that she could stare up at the cream ceiling. She listened carefully as Jonathan took quiet steps toward her.

"She started this." Her head turned so she didn't have to stare up at him as he loomed over her. A little squint and twitch in his eye begged her to continue. "But I'll end it." With a soft sigh she sat up to leave, but he pushed her back down by her shoulders. "Jonathan, just-"

A hand clamped over her mouth as he leaned into the bed to straddle her.

"What can those people do to you that I cannot?" He growled.

When she rolled her eyes the hand on her mouth lifted to hit. Reflexively she caught it just in time.

**_Make Scarecrow come out to play. I wanna see Scarecrow_**.

The voice whined. She had to blink hard a few times to keep control as he pushed her further up on the bed so that only her feet were hanging a little over the edge. His mouth was stuck in permanent snarl as he leaned in closely as if to intimidate her. After a moment of feeling his wrist tighten and strain under her grip she released him.

"I'm not sure if they scared me," she answered in a hoarse whisper, "I just know that I can fight now. I can keep myself alive."

His eyes narrowed until they were nearly closed. Then something seemed to hit him. The vice grip on her one shoulder slackened for a moment and he leaned away from her.

"Or someone else can keep you alive." He breathed darkly. "Are there other people in that brilliant little head of yours? Always covered under your snide exterior, while you defensively bite away any critic."

"You're one to talk." She scoffed. His hands wrapped around her wrists held them against the bed well above her head. As she yelped out in pain something flashed in his eyes for a brief moment. Ignoring the strain in her arms she smirked and lifted her chest so it was nearly touching his. "You like this too much. Do you always have to be the one of top, because-" with a grunt and shift in body weight she pushed him over so she was straddling him. Her legs wrapped underneath his to keep him grounded. "That's just no fun."

Still his smirk remained.

"So deflective of the question at hand." He pulled her close so their bodies were flush. "I know that you're no fool." When his hot breath tickled her ear lobe she could feel herself losing. Not to him, but to the thing inside her head. She had to squeeze her eyes shut to concentrate just on the swirling thoughts. Suddenly they quieted.

"She doesn't want to talk to you, Jonathan." Jude panted at last into the crook of his neck. His hand shot up to pull her hair so she had to look down at him.

"Who?"

Jude reveled in the sight below her. His eyes were as wide as saucers with eyebrows arched up so high they almost disappeared below his mussed up hair. She could tell that he wanted to know more. He needed to know more.

"Corvus." She whispered at last, lips grazing against his neck.

"Who does she want to talk to then?"

He repressed a groan as she pressed into him. This was all just a show and they both knew it. Some half thought-out attempt at keeping the information from him. A small grin graced his face whens he realized that she was doing all of this to keep whatever this other part of her that had broken free from him.

"Scarecrow." She whimpered into his collar. But, as he noted, it wasn't Jude anymore. This voice had a different quality to it. It was deeper, though somehow a bit whinier and pleading.

"I'm afraid that he's not out to play at the moment." Jonathan said, quietly combing at her hair. The forced gesture didn't get him far.

One of the hands from this monster slid around his neck and clamped onto the sides tightly, only restricting a bit of the blood flow.

"Then I don't care." It hissed. "She's the one that prefers your company. She thinks that Scarecrow is too reckless, but I don't care. I think if she could be she would be afraid of Scarecrow like I am."

His eyes lit up. "Are you scared of me?" He asked excitedly.

"Nope."

Her hand tightened the slightest bit upon his neck, but he made no attempt to move.

"Why isn't Scarecrow here?" She asked.

"He's been out quite a bit, I think he may be tired. I can't conjure him up at will." He bit out.

She lifted her head so fast he heard a pop come from her neck.

"Liar."

He was transfixed by her eyes. The swirling, muddy whites had grown darker.

"I don't understand why she has any affinity for you." Corvus sighed, tracing a finger down his chest. "She likes to say that you're so different from one another, but that's all just a lie. The four of us are just so much alike." She giggled and leaned her face back into his hair.

"How so?" All he had to do was keep her talking, but even though he couldn't call on Scarecrow he felt the other being begin to stir inside of him. Their minds and thoughts brushed against each other.

"Well you're both so...intellectual. Scarecrow and I do all of the dirty work. You two are so well thought out, and you plan beautifully. We just do. It's simpler. We're much more fun than you two."

She nipped at his ear.

"Just let me see him."

Jonathan squirmed under her, prying her hand away. Scarecrow was edging closer and closer, begging to this creature before him. This wasn't the time. She stared down at him with wishing eyes. They looked like black holes.

"No." He said sternly.

The hopeful expression in her muddy eyes vanished. Her brow creased and she fell onto his chest. She was completely still and silent. Jonathan breathed in the minty shampoo in her hair, and exhaled deeply as she began to squirm against him. He pushed her sleeping body off of his and sat up. She was already curled up and sleeping.

Jonathan shuffled into the bathroom, rubbing at his neck. There was a small, red hand print burning on his skin and little fingerprints that were beginning to bruise. He stroked his neck lightly and smiled.

"Sometime else. I know you'd only be too happy to comply with her sexual nature, and I don't require that at the moment. It would only get in the way." He was examining his neck pushing away any thoughts of desire that had crossed his mind while she had lain so close to him. They certainly weren't romantic in any sense. The carnal need and longing for her was that alone. He wanted her to scream his name and submit herself as he-

But right now he had more important things to do. She couldn't be a distraction or hindering force as he carried his plans out into motion. Over the last month he had been rallying the devices and chemicals he needed, all while staying under the Bats and the cop's radar and taking care of his guest. Though the recent, violent development in her life didn't concern him much. Imagining how naive Orlov was it was likely that she would dig herself too deep and get herself killed in no time.

Revenge never quite works out the way you would like it too. He thought pointedly, turning on the shower and stripping. Except when it does.

But this kind of revenge. A life for a life. That only works when the cops are involved. If not, then you're just another monster with a murder charge looming over you. Revenge for love didn't work. He peeked outside into the room to check if Jude was still sleeping. Though maybe that was incorrect, he thought, she had killed for love twice and had been successful. The circumstances were different though.

His mind wandered as the water sprayed, trying to imagine the dead look in her eyes when that other side had come out. Corvus. He chuckled at the name. When she had first arrived she hadn't answered when he asked if she knew the Latin term for crow. Maybe deep down she had known the word.

* * *

Jude stirred uncomfortably as she heard water running. The first thing she wanted to do was be angry with Jonathan for whatever he had done before she realized that she had ruined everything. The television screen had been beyond blurry this time. She could see him below her and on top of her, and then there was nothing. In the times before she had never blacked out like that and the...'other side' of her hadn't spoken that much.

As she sat up quickly her back popped and she groaned quietly. It was impossible to tell if she had been asleep for and hour or a minute, but Jonathan wasn't in the room and she didn't want to see him after what had transpired. While the water cranked off behind the bathroom door she slinked out of the one to the hall.

"You're an idiot!" Her voice bounced all around the narrow hall just the same as it did her head she imagined.

"But I just thought-"

"Stupid, impatient, childish, reckless!" She sneered, slamming the side of her fist heatedly at the wall. "You can't just do that without my say. You are not in charge. You aren't allowed to decide anything. You are just some useless split that happened when that woman did this to me!" Jude cried.

It was silent for a long minute as she continued to angrily storm down the hall.

"I protected you." It whispered. "You wouldn't do it yourself and no one else would either. I'm...I'm just trying to help." There was an amazing turn-around in the tone of the thing. Angrily whining, sexual, pleading. Jude didn't speak. "I am sorry for what I did, I guess I got too excited. I've waited to see Scarecrow for such a long time, and we're soulmates him and I. While I was rushing I didn't think of you. I'll be more careful in the future. Promise."

Jude sighed heavily and opened the door to her room gently. It was impossible to tell whether Corvus was trying manipulating her or being genuine. The things was rather childish, but perhaps it was smarter than it let on.

"If you wanted to protect me you would encourage me to run away from Jonathan."

The silence dragged on for such a long time she wondered whether or not the other side had disappeared for good.

"Just go to sleep please." Jude breathed without point as she sat on the edge of her bed.

"He'll keep us safe. We're special."

"We're not-"

"Let me finish. There's a reason you came to Gotham, don't you remember?"

She tossed herself back on the bed and stared up at the white ceiling.

I belong in an asylum.

"I helped you leave those riddles. We both knew-"

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Jude bolted upright, finally alone in her head.

"Come in." She was only just loud enough for Jonathan to her through the thin wood.

He was dressed in a pale blue button up and charcoal pants now. The curls in his wet hair swept up around his face almost made him look gentle.

"Were you ever planning on telling me about our new guest?" His voice cut in through the cold silence after a moment.

Jude crossed her arms and sat a little higher. Sighing, he pulled the chair from the desk and sat in front of her. Her eyes wouldn't quite meet his.

"I'm not going to torture you over this I'm just curious. Something such as this is only to be expected when one goes through such a traumatic and changing event as you have. Though," he chuckled, "Her fixation with Scarecrow is intriguing to say the least."

"I don't find it to be." She spat.

He tutted quietly and grabbed her face, forcing her to look at him.

"Don't get so snippy. There are a thousand worse things I could be doing right now, and I am being kind for once. Do not take this gesture lightly. Now," he cleared his throat and released her jaw, "Is she the one who takes over when you kill people? In recent terms that is."

She glared across at him and shrugged. "It's self defense. Though I suppose so. When something or someone poses as a threat that's when she takes over, and protects me."

"Do you know where her fixation with Scarecrow stems from?"

Jude shifted crossing one leg over the other and switching.

"I'm not sure." She said at last. "I think it may be something with what Orlov did to me, but I don't know. She knew that we had grown up in the same town, and she seemed to like that."

He cocked an eyebrow and leaned into her. "Or maybe it's just some deep seated passion you've never had the heart to come to terms with."

Leaning back she scrunched up her face. "I don't think so." She breathed deeply through her nose and hugged her arms tighter to herself. "I think I should go home. She still thinks I'm here, and it took her long enough to get to Gotham. I would rather just go into witness protection and leave this behind."

He scoffed gingerly. "We both know that's not what you're going to do. No matter how much you want to, you know you have to stay here and you will. If not you then Corvus will. Her overwhelming interest in Scarecrow will keep you both here. Simply coming to terms with your own lack of place in the world isn't enough to make this go away. Trust me."

Pushing herself a little higher, she tried to consider his words, but everything was too jumbled. It felt as though the world were rushing at her and she was moving in slow motion. Time passed like sand through her fingers while she remained a statue glued to this dirty man in this city. "If you find Scarecrow to be such an annoyance why didn't you ever get help to get rid of him."

Jonathan bristled lightly, setting his jaw firmly in place.

"He has his uses." He grounded out at last. "As your other half does for you."

She didn't want to think about the options.

Would getting rid of this thing inside of me get rid of a part of me to?

In the very back of her mind a faint whispering of yes echoed. Nothing seemed true or real or right. The world suddenly seemed so far away. She longed to be back at the cafe with Logan and Terra sitting in the sunlight. The closest feeling she had to home was with these people, and she had always enjoyed their company. Ever since the operation incident she had regretted feeling so ill and tired of them the last day they had spoken. It wasn't fair to them.

"Do you feel like you belong in Gotham?"

She looked up as he reached out a hand to open the door. She had been too caught up in her own self-pity she hadn't noticed he had stood.

"You mean like a home?"

"Sure, I suppose."

"Yes. Gotham is my city. I thrive here, and I believe I always will."

Jude nodded reluctantly, staring down at her own lap.

_Don't worry, we belong somewhere too_.

* * *

**Alrighty! And that's all for today, I hope you liked it and have a good day :-) I'll hopefully be back soon now that the wifi is (hopefully mostly fixed)**


	12. Dollhouse

"I'm leaving. Do not fret if I don't return."

Jude nodded, barely paying attention as Jonathan shrugged on his thick woolen jacket and pushed in his chair. She kept her eyes glued to the next paragraph of the old magazine.

"I printed an article in there once. It was not my best work, but more inspired than the other trash I skimmed while reading." He said haughtily as he lingered in the doorway.

"Congrats," she sighed, not taking her eyes away from the article. It wasn't one that he wrote. That had been the only word she had spoken to him since a small thank you for the breakfast he had made.

He pursed his lips and turned on his heels. Once the clicking of his shoes had gone away she threw the boring magazine onto the table and cradled her head in her hands. It seemed as if an infinite amount of time had passed since Corvus had come out last. The only part of the absence that had frightened her was how lonely she felt. She had had plenty of company from Jonathan who had barely stepped from the workhouse in the last week or more. Every time she thought about leaving her will betrayed her.

The last hit man had given her actual information other than who they had been working for.

There was a group coming for her, and it wasn't the cops. The paper said that her threat was growing, but they still had bigger folks to chase after. At this point she didn't want the GCPD or Batman to think that she was a bigger threat than she was.

"It's not even my fault!" She cried as waves of anger sloshed through her.

Everything was boring without the nagging childish voice egging her on. Her existence was becoming more and more lonely with every waking minute and she began to slowly feel the same emptiness that had overcome her when she had first traveled to Gotham.

"You're being dramatic." Jude sighed.

Anyone could see that.

She almost jumped at the sound of the voice.

"You're back?"

Maybe it had just been a trick, she thought.

"I'm not a trick." The words cooed from Corvus this time. "Ya know, I was just a lil' disappointed after I didn't get to see Scarecrow," she giggled, "Didn't mean ta make ya worry like that."

"Why are talking like that?" Jude sniffed.

She could feel Corvus shrug, but there was no response. For a moment she was scared that it had retreated back away from her for another extended period.

"We should go out."

"Dunno, I hear there's a bounty out for us."

"We haven't left the house in a long time. I'm bored of this." Jude was concerned that she was sounding more and more like a child.

"You could have gone out without me, you know." It smirked, mocking her.

"I...I couldn't. Y-y-you can fight better than me, and there's a big group looking for you now." She cursed the stutter that escaped. With every second that ticked by she felt weaker and weaker.

"How sweet! I guess I'll help you out then. Let's go."

It felt as though she was being pulled from her chair by some outside force. She was pulled down the hall into her room. Her hands rooted through the dresser on their own accord pulling out a black cotton turtleneck leotard which she couldn't recall ever seeing before, sheer dark gray stockings, and dark pants to go over them. The battered tennis shoes she had worn every day since arriving were kicking off as the hands that seemed further and further out of her control picked out a sturdy looking dark brow boot.

Everything was rushed and fast forwarding like she was watching through the television screen once again. Corvus didn't say anything as she buzzed around the room, slipping on a coat and grabbing the gun from her purse. She tore through the desk, pulling out a small case of soft black charcoal hidden among the pens and papers that had been in the desk since before her. The black stained her hands as she crushed it into powder between her fingers.

Jude wanted to ask what she was doing, but couldn't bring herself to open her mouth the slightest bit.

She rubbed the powder into the crease of her eyes and under her cheekbones and upon her chapped lips. The rest was smeared over her hands, making them almost entirely black.

They marched down the hall to the door which was conveniently left unlocked.

"He did this on purpose." Jude almost stopped herself from opening it. She cursed as they stormed down the steps. "Jonathan probably set this entire situation up just to-"

"Oh, calm yourself. You know that he had other interests and business."

The second door leading to the alley beside the warehouse was open as well.

Words spilled out from Corvus quickly. "Do you wanna know why I came back?"

Jude remained wary, but nodded slightly. Cold wind that smelled of sewage and diesel hit her square in the face. The city was wretched and stale like the other part of her.

"I know that Scarecrow will have to see me after this is all through with. This is big, and he won't be able to contain himself." A screeching laugh tore through the abandoned street. "We'll finally be together."

"Until we go to jail." Jude scoffed.

Corvus continued freely, ignoring the comment. "I can just tell this is the last straw. Then that little girl will come out and fight us for real, and then he'll see. He'll force his way to the front, and Jonnie won't stop him. The four of us will be so in love, it'll be such a-"

"That's not love."

"What would you know?" She bit back.

Jude sighed and pulled the collar a little tighter around her neck. Her feet were taking her in a direction she had never walked before.

"Jonathan and I will never fall in love. Not just with each other, I don't believe either of us could fall in love with anyone. You and Scarecrow, now you two barely know anything about the real world so how could you? The both of you are just broken, overused pieces of armor that the two of us needed when we were younger. The only thing the two of you desire is to kill, protect and satiate whatever primal sexual needs I and Jonathan could care less about."

Corvus sighed dramatically and flung her arms out. "Don't be so huffy with me. I might just slip away again, and this time-"

"Wait! I'm s-s-sorry." Jude ran a hand down her face and through her choppy hair. "Let's just get this over with."

* * *

Jude ignored the wanted posters with the blurry profile of her face plastered in every other window or lamppost. The press had even come up wit a few names for her, although no one had recognized her. Every article laced with vague details of the gore and filled with the growing list of innocent victims.

What if some of those people are innocent? I barely remember even seeing most of their faces or hearing them...

Do you think that I would kill an innocent person?

She shrunk into herself upon hearing the clipped voice. It was a wonder the people passing by her on the street didn't notice as she shifted uncomfortably and moved her silent lips to say the words in her head.

Little by little the people began disappearing until she was left completely alone. Her feet ached from walking for hours and the acrid smell of sewage wafted up from the sidewalk. The abandoned buildings surrounding her on all sides seemed to close in as her breathing became shaky and uneven.

"Hey! You!"

Little black dots faded her vision as a man jogged out of an alley to steady her arms. Muscles tensing and awareness coming back rather suddenly she jerked away. It was obvious that the man was dressing in trash clothes on purpose. His face was well-groomed and his hair was cut by a profession. He had beautiful dark skin and gorgeous cheekbones.

"You alright? I just...I...actually I think you should come with me."

She nearly regretted what was to come next. His hand reached behind him to pull into his back pocket.

It's a gun. Shoot him.

So she did. One resonating boom in the empty street followed by the static of the radio that had fallen from his hand. It filled her head with a faint buzzing that echoed and bounced around until she was almost dizzy again. Her mouth gaped at the red splotches on her hands. The wet spray upon her face was already becoming sticky.

There were more shouting voices pouring from the alleys and streets. She couldn't control her hands as she pulled the trigger four more times. More splashes of liquid copper covered her flesh. Salty tears fell down from her eyes looking down at the three men and women at her feet. None of them had weapons. All of them had radios. While she heaved back a sob another strong voice boomed from behind her.

The look of terror on the man's face was burned into her murky black eyes as she reached forward and slashed through his throat. Hands sunk knuckle deep into the burning flesh an inhumane gurgle and scream tore out of his broken neck as she plunged her hand deeper still weeping. She pulled out her bright red hand and sniffed.

Everything began to blur again as sprays of red shot out from each and every person who approached her. Jude knew what they were, but she couldn't stop. It was too late. Corvus had a plan, and wasn't going to stop until every threat had been terminated.

As she pulled both arms out of a woman's stomach and pushed the corpse the the stained pavement she fell to her knees. The only thing she could smell was the blood staining her face and hands. She tried to wipe the tears from her eyes, only to get more burgundy stains streaked upon her face.

"Let's rest for now." Corvus whispered. It sounded just as exhausted as she felt. "No one will even come by. This is all deserted. Just go to sleep. We'll be home when you wake up."

* * *

If home was a high security prison with soft walls then Jude was home when she woke. Her clothes had been changed and there were handcuffs on her cracking brown hands. The blood hadn't been washed from her yet. Though her mind felt groggy everything was eerily calm. Twitching cameras ghosted over her waking body as she struggled to stand upright in the cell.

Corvus was silent.

Her own thoughts were silent as well.

It was as if time itself had stopped just so she could suffer in this empty hell.

After hours or days or minutes the door to her hell was opened to slightly darker hell. Two men the size of mountains brooded into the room carrying larger cuffs for her arms and legs. Her tears had been exhausted and her limbs were still too heavy to move quickly enough to fight back. And Corvus. Corvus was still silent.

Her dry tongue couldn't move to ask them where she was or what was going on. She wasn't dull, it was obvious, but the question still loomed. Jude's feet scraped along the concrete floors as she was dragged out. The newly added shackles weighed down her aching arms and feet enormously. Clamps kept her fingers from even twitching.

She kept her eyes locked on the dark floor until they stopped walking.

Two murmuring voices were behind the stark white door before her. Sweat began to pool under her scraggly matted bangs as the voices silenced. The guard on her left, who smelled to much like antiseptic, knocked twice. A sharp click of heels echoed in the closed room for a moment before the door was swung open.

"Hi, I'm Doctor Joan Leland, we're going to be doing a little psych evaluation. It'll only take a few moments."

Jude nodded numbly as the guards released her into the room. A wrinkled old white man wearing a doctor's coat huffed and shuffled out of the room once Jude had made it only a step past the door way. The room was just as empty as the cell she had just been in. Metal walls and two cold metal chairs seated across from one another at the table sitting in the middle. A long shiny black wall across Jude's chair glowered down at her. She understood everything that was happening and everything that needed to happen. Even all the way out at Stryker's she heard stories about the prisons in Gotham. Everyone knew that if you wanted to be treated halfway humanely you needed to stay as far away from Blackgate as possible.

"Now," Joan's voice cut in through her thoughts, "I'm sure they haven't even told you why you're here, have they?"

Jude shook her head a little too fast and struggled to make a noise that vaguely sounded like no. She shifted her eyes away as Joan smiled politely and sat down in the seat facing away from the window.

"You're currently in the Blackgate Penitentiary. Do you know why you're here?" She sounded so confident and businesslike in everything she said. Jude knew how it was, but right now she couldn't act like she knew what was going on.

"Sorta'," she mumbled out.

"Tell you me why you think you're here today?"

Jude shifted under her strong, dark gaze. Her persona felt suddenly split again. She was the scared little girl before everything happened. Her mother wasn't dead yet, Jonathan wasn't hiding her up in a cabin, she wasn't in charge of one of those most important prison facilities on the west coast. Her heart quivered under her chest and her palms were sweaty.

"She told me to kill those people." Her voice was shaky and tight. "I just came here so that I could die, but she kept me alive and then whenever anyone would try to hurt me she would take over and protect me."

Dr. Leland nodded pensively and motioned for her to continue.

She sighed heavily, trying to keep herself from sobbing. Now she wasn't sure if this was an act or not. The truth had been there in her last sentence, though partial, and now it was all a matter of continuing it.

"Do you know how many people you have killed?"

Jude bit the inside of her cheek until she drew blood, then spoke up.

"No, I think I could estimate, but I don't really remember." Liar. "If I tried to count the times when she took over I might be able to."

"Do you experience any kind of blackout or memory loss while she is in control?"

"Mostly yes. I can still feel my body, but it's not really me. This voice just comes out and I can't control what I'm doing, however..." she cleared her throat to get rid of the clawing remarks Corvus was itching to blurt out, "I can still kinda see it."

"Tell me how you see it?"

"It's like a blurry movie. Or like a really far away drive-in theater."

The doctor nodded once again and paused her for a moment to pull out a tiny notebook.

"Are you currently on any medication?"

"No, I'm not."

"And your drug screen came up clean," she murmured to herself. "Do you have any friends or family here?" A tight smile crossed her face.

Jude grimaced and shook her head lightly.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm from Metropolis. The only friends I had were there."

"Why did you leave?"

"I...uh...I was fired and alone, and thought that maybe I could...I wanted to die."

Dr. Leland nodded almost sympathetically.

"Where do you live now?"

"Nowhere." She answered too quickly. "At first just in alleys and things like in the Narrows, but now I just stay in this old warehouse I found."

"Do you have any family at all who we would be able to contact?"

Jude shook her head again with a slight shrug.

"Not that I know of. My mother died when I was younger and my father left, but someone told me later that he was dead too a few years ago."

"What is your name?"

"Judith Van Ripper."

Lies...

She fought the urge to shush Corvus as the words slipped from her mouth.

"Should we contact anyone?"

"Please don't, unless you really need to. I don't want my friends to know that I've become some monster. They can't know."

Dr. Leland looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding her head. "I'll do everything I can." As she stood Jude went to reach out to her, only to be stopped by the heavy shackles.

"Please, wait! Can you tell me what's going to happen next?"

Dr. Leland took a deep breath and smiled ruefully. "I think that you'll be coming with me. I'm just going to leave for a little bit, and when I get back I can tell you for sure, alright?"

Jude hurriedly nodded. "Okay, thank you." She kept her eyes wide, scanning the room. Behind the shaded glass she could feel them all staring at her, but kept her eyes from gazing over it too long. They would take that the wrong way. She bit her lips over and over until they bled as she waited.

Jonathan is going to be upset.

But Scarecrow...

"Shut up." She whispered heatedly.

* * *

**Ok, so that was a pretty lame ending to be honest.**

**Review Responses**

**-eveapplefield (I didn't want to accidentally send this to the wrong person, and you weren't logged in so I wasn't completely sure) on ch. 1,2: Honestly, reading over the first few chapters I totally agree with you. I wasn't being too technical or detail oriented when I wrote them, and someday I'd really like to rewrite those first few chapters especially. I really appreciate the review and criticism though just to let you know so thanks! **


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